Large entertainment center is pitched for Verot School Road | Business

The owner of the Cuban restaurant under construction along Johnston Street in Lafayette wants to build a 50,000-square-foot entertainment facility that will look like Roman Colosseum.

Yury Remedio is requesting the property in the 800 block of Verot School Road be rezoned for his concept, to be called The Colosseum. The matter will go before the Lafayette Zoning Commission at its 5 p.m. Monday meeting.

Remedio, who will the Cuban Tradition restaurant at 5611 Johnston St. early next year, indicated the building will include a pool/billiards hall, a main floor for live music and several bars, according to documents filed with Lafayette Consolidated Government.

The request is to rezone the property from commercial mixed (CM-1) to commercial heavy (CH) to allow the entertainment facility. Remedio said that the project is “years away” from completion. 

“That’s far in the future,” he said. “The hardest part is finding property in the first place.”  

LCG’s planning department is recommending commissioners deny the request. The size of the building would have a capacity of 3,600 people and require 331 parking spaces, all of which would be too large for that location.

Eleven nearby residents have called LCG in opposition to the project, the report indicated.

“A full house during an event could be a disruptive influence on the surrounding neighborhoods,” the report read, “and not conducive to the relative quiet and peace expected in a neighborhood.

“The additional traffic, noise or loitering accompanying an entertainment facility may not be able to be mitigated to a satisfactory level for nearby residences.”

Remedio is also planning to open a plant nursery on land he bought earlier this year at 7510 Johnston St.