In its day, the Pioneer Bank Building on the southeast corner of Texas and Edwards Streets was a great monument to banking in the heyday of downtown Shreveport and locally owned banks.
At that time the beautiful white marble building faced the red brick First National Bank, it was flanked by the Commercial National Bank (CNB)building and was diagonally across from the Louisiana Bank & Trust branch on the ground floor of the Petroleum Tower. The First National building, the CNB building, and the Petroleum Tower were THE downtown office buildings for tenants. The Pioneer Bank Building only housed the bank.
This intersection at Texas and Edwards was just a short city block from the very exclusive Shreveport Club, and at that time, The Petroleum Club. Simply put this location was The Place to be in downtown Shreveport.
The banking world changed substantially since the 1960s and now the above four listed banks have been merged and/or bought out. The red brick building has only a few tenants, the Petroleum Tower is totally vacant and the old CNB Building on that corner is still occupied but it has lost its luster to the massive adjacent Regions Bank Building that initially was the CNB Tower.
The Pioneer Bank Building features an expansive atrium topped off with a very large chandelier. Key bank officers have large offices on the mezzanine overlooking the atrium and Texas Street. By most standards it was the cat's meow of downtown office buildings.
Pioneer was bought by Hibernia National Bank and the Pioneer Building housed Hibernia for a short time period. The City of Shreveport purchased the building under the Keith Hightower Administration in 2003 for $750,000.
After housing the Multicultural Center of the South for a few years, the City moved the Community Development Office to the building in 2011 under the Cedric Glover Administration. The building was always impractical for Community Development due to its size and internal layout. Its only redeeming features were a parking garage and the location that was only a few blocks from Governmental Plaza.
The building suffered flooding problems in the garage and other substantial maintenance issues. Additionally, fourth floor fire damage has not been repaired. Community Development moved earlier this year to a leased location at 415 Texas Street. The new location is appropriately sized with well-planned office space unlike the Pioneer Building.
So now the City hopes to sell this white marble monument to times gone by. The City Council must declare the property to be surplus and then it can be sold at auction for a minimum bid of $850,000, which is the appraised value as required by state law. To say downtown has a substantial over capacity of office space is an understatement and sales of large buildings have not occurred in recent years.
The City of Shreveport is not in the business of owning office buildings and/or leasing office space. Maintenance and upkeep is the responsibility of the overburdened Shreveport Public Assembly & Recreation (SPAR) division which must also maintain public parks, community centers ,the Independence Bowl and many other city buildings. Interestingly enough, SPAR's website motto is "Enhancing lives through people, parks, places, play and programs." One doubts this phrase encompasses ownership of a downtown white elephant.