LAFAYETTE — Plans to restore the historic Coburn's Supply building, located at the corner of Grant St. and Second St., are underway following its collapse in May.
At the time of the collapse, Senate Bill 71 was moving through the state legislature. Following the collapse, the bill passed, transferring ownership of the building from DOTD to Lafayette Parish.
Kevin Blanchard, CEO of Downtown Lafayette, said, "I think the first step is the Public Trust is going to take a little bit of time to make sure that the building is safe, to see if it's salvageable, to see what it would cost to maintain it, repair it, or to put a development through it."
The building's future use has not been determined yet.
Blanchard said downtown Lafayette needs more residential space, offices, stores and restaurants.
“What we’re doing right now is a lot of redevelopment work where we’re going to be looking at what is feasible, what would make sense for our market, what would make sense as far as the cost, and what would be the expected return on the other end of that," he said.
Redevelopment for the area could take several years.
"This is something that's going to take awhile, you know. The building didn't get into this bad shape overnight, and it's not going to get into good shape overnight as well. So I would think it would be a few months before we find out exactly what it would take to put this building back into commerce, if anything," Blanchard said.
He said Second St. could reopen in a few weeks.
