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Whitney Sayal, one of two finalists for the job as Downtown Development District executive director, talks with Jude Melville, right, a DDD Commission member and CEO of b1BANK, at a welcome breakfast at the DDD offices, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. Sayal is assistant director of urban trails at BREC, and a former DDD staffer.

When Whitney Hoffman Sayal ended an 8-year tenure at the Downtown Development District in 2020, she didn’t expect to return less than two years later as the organization’s executive director.

“I love downtown, I’ve always loved downtown. I don’t think my heart truly left it, but I left thinking it was in good hands,” said Hoffman Sayal, who started at DDD as the development project director in 2012.

Hoffman Sayal, 41, took a job as the assistant director of urban trails at BREC to gain leadership experience at a larger organization where she felt there was more upward mobility, she said.

Then, Davis Rhorer, nicknamed the “Godfather of Downtown” during his 34-year career as the first head of the DDD, died of complications from the coronavirus in March 2021.

Hoffman Sayal learned from Rhorer’s passion for downtown, treating every new project like “opening presents on Christmas Day,” as well as gaining insight and communication skills that Rhorer had in abundance, she said.

While still grieving her mentor’s death, Hoffman Sayal, along with more than 80 other people from around the country, applied for the executive director role at DDD.

“Davis is a major reason why I applied for the position,” Hoffman Sayal said. “The amount of time that I spent there, there was a lot of institutional knowledge that he shared with all of us, and I want to bring that with me.”

Hoffman Sayal was born in Nebraska and moved with her family to Ruston when she was 15. She graduated from Louisiana Tech with a professional bachelor’s degree in architecture in 2004 and received a master’s degree in landscape architecture from LSU in 2008.

Along with her years at DDD, Hoffman Sayal has spent much of her career working in Baton Rouge and within the city-parish government.

Out of college, Hoffman Sayal worked as an associate with Baton Rouge architecture firm Brown Danos until taking a job at the Center for Planning Excellence in 2010. She then became a planner at Baton Rouge’s Office of Community Development before joining DDD in 2012.

DDD commissioners said they were impressed with Sayal's experience, enthusiasm and vision for the organization.

“She has a commitment and passion that’s important for this kind of a job,” said Commissioner Jude Melville. “She’s committed to taking the best of what Davis did and perpetuating that and adding some things.”

During Wednesday’s Metro Council meeting where Hoffman Sayal was unanimously confirmed, council members noted the sweeping support for her selection to become DDD’s second-ever executive director in its 35-year existence.

“We very seldomly unanimously support a candidate for a position like this, so congratulations,” Council leader LaMont Cole told Hoffman Sayal.

Hoffman Sayal said she now hopes to build on Rhorer’s legacy at the organization while also bringing her own ideas about how best to improve downtown Baton Rouge.

“I think I'm going to hopefully bring the best of both worlds,” Hoffman Sayal said. “I'm going to bring that institutional knowledge and history and wealth of knowledge that Davis brought to it, as well as my own additional ideas in making it move even further.”

The DDD lured more than $2.2 billion in investments to downtown, $1.4 billion in private spending and $818 million in public funds during its first three decades in existence under Rhorer, revitalizing the area. Hoffman Sayal said there's still plenty of work to be done. 

"We’ve got a good set of bones," Hoffman Sayal said.

Hoffman Sayal emphasized the need to continue developing empty properties along the riverfront, while also creating a “clean and safe” program to make downtown more attractive to tourists and potential investors. She also hopes to create more greenspaces and bike paths, like the North Boulevard greenway that she helped plan during her first tenure at DDD.

But first, she wants to create DDD’s first strategic plan since 2012 to better understand what community members and other stakeholders want to see in the downtown area. That plan should include ideas on how to develop areas that were added to the DDD’s boundaries in 2012, connecting downtown to both Mid City and the Water Campus.

Hoffman Sayal said she intends to use skills learned from Rhorer to bring those visions to life as she takes the reins at DDD.

"I am still somewhat processing his loss, so taking the position is bittersweet,” Hoffman Sayal said. “It’s really exciting for me professionally, but it’s really sad in the way that it happened. I hope he’s proud.”