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Business owner wants to help revitalize Northgate neighborhood

5 years 8 months 1 day ago Tuesday, July 17 2018 Jul 17, 2018 July 17, 2018 9:42 PM July 17, 2018 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE- Tiger Town, also known as Northgate, sprung up in the 1920s along Chimes and State Street. 

"When LSU moved its location from downtown to where it is now, this neighborhood opened up to provide services for the LSU community," said Highland Coffee's owner Clark Cadzow. As a lover of the neighborhood, he's taken to immersing himself in its history. 

"It was thriving well in to the 1970s and really in to the 80s," he said.

After that, Cadzow said it was the move to develop areas like Nicholson and Burbank that caused the neighborhood to decline. These days, its plagued by a high turn-over rate and vacant buildings. 

"When I was in college, 20 plus years ago, this was the area," said Stephen Hightower. As the owner of City Pork--and now City Slice--he wants to bring it back. 

"It started as a little journey to find a kitchen and now its turned in to a great new concept and what we think is a great area," said Hightower. 

City Slice sits where The Bleachers and Reginelli's used to be, and back when it was the Bayou Bar, it was used in the 1989 movie Sex, Lies and Videotape.

Cadzow says even though the proximity to a huge college campus can be a cash cow, it has one major drawback.

"The students are here primarily for about 8 months and they're gone for the rest of the time and that's hard for businesses to take," said Cadzow. 

Hightower says he recognizes the setbacks he faces, but thinks the over-saturation--and traffic-- of South Campus could drive people back to Northgate.

"I think we have a grand opportunity that can be this convenient, great community. There's incredible young families, young professionals that all live over here," said Hightower.

City Slice is set to open August 14. 

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