After more than a year of delay, the University received permission on Jan. 11 to accept the donation of the Rienzi-Levert Plantation from the J.B. Levert Land Company.
With the donation of the seven-acre estate, the University plans to refurbish the existing plantation home as well as construct the new Ruth U. Fertel Culinary Arts Building.
One of the land company’s stipulations in the donation of the plantation was that the University request $750,000 from the state to be used to renovate and update the house. According to Mike Davis, assistant vice president for business affairs for procurement and plan operations, the delay in construction has been due to the University’s inability to secure the funding with the state.
“The state is not going to pay for the (Fertel) building, ” Rebecca Tucker, assistant vice president and director of development, said. “It’s going to be totally built from private donations to the Nicholls State University Foundation.”
Tucker is in charge of marshaling the fundraising for the plantation project. Tucker said the total amount of money in private cash donations raised by the University thus far is $1,224,335, and based upon the last cost estimate of the building as of April 16, 2003, the University has approximately $5.2 million more to raise.
“You have to understand that the figure could change because (the approximation) is based upon the floor plan as it is right now, and that could change,” Tucker said. “It could be more, or it could be less.”
Davis said he guesses that actual construction of the new culinary building or remodeling of the house may not begin until the latter part of this year or later. On January 26, the Nicholls State University Foundation board of directors will be conducting a meeting with the university president, Stephen Hulbert, and project architects to discuss the game plan for moving forward with the project.
After upgrading the Rienzi home, the University plans to use the plantation house as a museum, displaying a variety of sculptures, paintings, southern watercolors and other art.
The additional construction of the Ruth U. Fertel Culinary Arts Building will be a two-level facility and operate in conjunction with the on-campus culinary institute. On the first level, there will be a sauce kitchen, two hot kitchens, a garde-manger, a room for baking and pastry, a commissary, an auditorium, a student-run restaurant including kitchen, dining area and bar, a wine cellar and other various rooms. On the second level, there will be two classrooms, a computer lab, conference rooms and offices for the chefs and other personnel.
According to Robert Harrington, dean of the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, in the donation of the plantation from the Levert Land Company to Nicholls, the company gave the University several restrictions: any changes to the house itself need to be approved by the State Division of Historic Preservation, the company reserves the right to use the house and ground for business functions once a year for up to two days and no construction which may obstruct the view of the plantation home from the highway may be done.
“I think it’s a great opportunity here with this donation of the plantation home to create a lot of marketing potential for Nicholls State University,” Harrington said. “It really creates a personality for the University to use to market itself to students from out of the state and out of the country who may want to come to what is a great university experience in southern Louisiana.