The Central State Hospital, located in across from Lake Buhlow in Pineville, may soon see some changes.

During the North Rapides Business and Industry Alliance meeting held on Jan. 20, members of the Pineville Downtown Development District (PDDD) offered “high hopes” to industry and business leaders in the region.

Mike Tudor, Chairman of the PDD, stated that the hospital is “a huge campus full of abandoned buildings, and we desperately need help from the state to develop it. It has a potential for asset.” 

Tudor added, that it also has “a potential for disaster if we don’t get some financial aid from the state.”

The hospital was first opened in 1902 and was meant to serve people with mental health issues. It is currently owned by the State Department of Health and is intended to “provide intermediate inpatient psychiatric care to Louisiana residents in need of service.” 

While detangling red tape is never simple, the project seems to be close to coming into focus thanks to the Cenla Delegation in the legislature. 

Tudor thanked the legislative delegation, Mike Johnson, and Governor Landry for the help they have promised for the project. 

Tudor also highlighted that it wouldn’t be a from-scratch project. “Look at the three businesses that you have there as part of the campus already. They all produce employment. They all produce sales tax. Also, in the middle of the campus, as you develop it, you have the same effect. You have employment, you have sales tax, and it has a reverberating effect.”

At the moment, Tudor indicated that the PDD is considering a developer that has proposed at roughly $50 million revamp project which would see the core of the campus turned into senior/elderly living. With assistance from the state, this investment could also save the campus’s historic buildings as well as grow the region’s economy. 

Tudor noted that “Alexandria and Pineville still are the lead outs for any kind of economic development. Anything that happens good in the core area has reverberation.”