Liz Swaine
Executive Director
Downtown Development Authority
Downtown Shreveport Development Corporation
The soon-to-be owner of the 343,543-square-foot, 21-story Louisiana Tower at 401 Edwards St. came to Shreveport last week to take a look at his latest acquisition and left with plans to make the Class A tower even more appealing.
Real Estate developer R.D. Sharma of Atlanta, Ga., was the high bidder at $7.5m.; he told the Shreveport Downtown Development Authority he owns properties in multiple states including George, Illinois, Mississippi, New Jersey, and more recently, Louisiana. His plans are to enhance the tenant experience in the building, and he and his local staff will be looking at a variety of ways to do that.
Goal #1 is to get the lobby escalator and elevators in top-notch shape, replace carpeting, upgrade bathrooms and invest in other immediately noticeable improvements. Sharma will close on the building at the end of December and plans to keep the current building staff in place. Louisiana Tower is one of four Class A office towers in downtown’s Central Business District. Built in 1984, it sits on roughly a half-acre of property and was sold with the adjacent 453-vehicle, multi-level parking garage. Current high-profile tenants include New York Life Insurance Co., Bradley Murchison Kelly & Shea attorneys-at-law, and Merrill Lynch.