BATON ROUGE — A firm has been selected to spearhead an initiative aimed at revitalizing downtown Baton Rouge, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and other groups announced Tuesday.

Plan Baton Rouge III will be led by the planning group Sasaki, a 70-year-old firm that specializes in planning and civil engineering. The firm beat out 22 other competitors to lead the initiative, which will build on previous plans for downtown from 1998 and 2009.

The earlier plans — Plan Baton Rouge I and Plan Baton Rouge II — "established a framework for coordinated actions that have fostered public/private partnerships, resulting in over $3 billion in new investments downtown within the last two decades," BRAF said.

Sasaki has also worked on projects in Baton Rouge like the Baton Rouge Lakes, Greenwood Park and the Baton Rouge Zoo, BRAF said.

BRAF said that the plan will take about a year to fully outline and that community feedback is an important part of the project. Local firms working on the project will include Franklin Associates, CSRS, Vectura Consulting Services, Trahan Architects and James Lima Planning + Design.

“Previous versions of this plan have resulted in the development of new buildings, businesses and living opportunities that have made life in Baton Rouge better, not only for the residents of the downtown area but also for anyone visiting it," Chris Meyer, president and CEO of BRAF, said. A strong precedent was set with Plan Baton Rouge I & II that our community is willing to work together to make transformational change happen."

Sasaki's principal planner for the project is Joshua Brooks, a Baton Rouge native. A steering committee co-chaired by National Housing Consultant Services' Helena Cunningham, BRAF's Eric Dexter, Marty Engquist, Raising Cane’s founder Todd Graves and Wampold Companies' Mike Wampold will also oversee the next stages of the planning process.