Baton Rouge Growth and Development

[richyb83]

Real Estate Outlook Positive

 

http://theadvocate.com/news/business/5747831-123/kors-bradley-stores-coming-to

 

Brian Andrews, assistant director of LSU’s Real Estate Research Institute, said financing for commercial and residential development is starting to loosen up and lenders are increasing their budgets. He noted that apartments, warehouse and industrial space, grocery-anchored retail and offices in central business districts are most preferred by lenders. He said lenders will consider unanchored and big-box centers, suburban office, restaurants and self-storage facilities, though those are a tougher sell.

[richyb83]

Looking forward to seeing a rendering...will it resemble the 5-story Crescent Condo's next door??

 

Wampold plans to tear down, rebuild Stanford Avenue apartments

Developer Mike Wampold has filed for site plan approval to tear down One Lakeshore Place apartments on Stanford Avenue and build a new, upscale 240-unit apartment complex called Lakeshore Place on Stanford, says Ryan Holcomb, Planning Commission planning project coordinator. The aging apartment complex, built in 1963 on a roughly 5.5-acre site, is located next to the Crescent at University Lakes condos—also developed by Wampold—across the street from the LSU lakes. Because Wampold plans to build more than 100 residential units on the site, Holcomb says, he is required to get site plan approval for the project. Wampold's new plan is slated to go before the Planning Commission on June 17. Approval from the Metro Council is not required for the site plan, nor does Wampold need any permission to demolish One Lakeshore Place.

Read more from Business Report here: http://www.businessreport.com/section/daily-reportPM#ixzz2SrEhSJQJ

Edited May 10, 2013 by richyb83

[Antrell Williams]

It will probably closely resemble Crescent, as a similar height as well. Wonder if they will be apartments or condos..

[itsjustme3]

The article says apartment complex but find it hard to believe it wouldnt be condos. That land is too valuable to be apartments.

[richyb83]

Rising tide Optimism abounds in the Capital Region, thanks largely to a boom in chemical manufacturing

 

Like everywhere else, the Baton Rouge area had a recession. But, as local elites will constantly remind you, our recession wasn't as bad as most.

After the Hurricane Katrina levee failures flooded New Orleans in 2005 and sent hundreds of thousands of new residents into the Capital Region, virtually every business was booming. When the evacuees went home, the post-boom hangover was painful, and a global financial meltdown certainly didn't help. But south Louisiana was somewhat insulated from the worst of the Great Recession, and officials say the state has recovered the jobs it lost in the downturn. And lately, there's more optimism in Baton Rouge than at any time since those heady post-Katrina days, thanks mostly to the low price of an invisible gas

 

PLANT TOWN
Baton Rouge is home to Louisiana's state government and its largest university. Health care, retail and education are the leading employers in the region, in terms of the sheer number of jobs. But manufacturing, particularly chemical manufacturing, pays the highest average wages. From a business perspective, Baton Rouge is primarily known as a chemical plant town. While the economy is far more diverse than it was a few decades ago, it's still to a great extent a plant town. And those plants mostly run on natural gas

 

TECH TRENDS
Lest you think it's all about the plants, Baton Rouge officials have three letters they'd like to share with you: IBM

MAJOR MARKET
During the last decade, according to the 2010 census, the Capital Region passed the 800,000-resident threshold, officially making it a “major market” and, presumably, putting it in a higher economic development weight class. The same census found that East Baton Rouge Parish was the most heavily populated parish in the state, although the real growth has been in neighboring Ascension and Livingston parishes, formerly rural areas that now feature affluent bedroom communities.

The sprawling nature of the Baton Rouge area contributes to its traffic and infrastructure problems. While planners urge infill development, concerns about crime and schools discourage many people from living close to the city.The nine parishes described in this special section each have their own assets and challenges. Local leaders often say they're working on ways to leverage those assets and address those challenges together, as a region.

Despite political and cultural divides among rural, suburban and city dwellers in the Baton Rouge area, everyone's fate in some ways is tied together. They say a rising tide lifts all boats, and in today's Capital Region, it appears the tide is rising.

 

rest of article...
Read more from Business Report here: http://www.businessreport.com/5152013/print-edition/MFB/Rising_tide#ixzz2TrLGYTGS

 

 

Edited May 20, 2013 by richyb83

[richyb83]

Will the next phase of Southgate Towers finally happen?? Or is this something else?? 235-units planned.  Plenty going at yesterday's council meeting....even the old Judson Baptist baseball fields could be a 2nd location for the 13th Gate...interesting

 

New residential development planned at Pecue and Perkins

 

Plans for a new 34-lot residential development at the intersection of Pecue Lane and Perkins Road is up for consideration at today's meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission. Audubon Parc, a development by Spear Contractors, is one of several proposals before the commission. Another is for a second 13th Gate Park location, planned as a 75-acre haunted house and recreational park complete with a corn maze, outdoor laser tag field, a zombie run and cemetery, near Joor and Mickens roads. Here's a look at some of the other items up for consideration:
• Plans for 100 new homes at The Settlement at Willow Grove
• A second filing at Hoo Shoo Too Lakes, proposing to create 41 single-family, residential lots
• A zoning change to the old Stella Boutique, at 3033 Perkins Road, to allow alcohol to be sold at the location, which is slated to become a new pizza joint
• Plans to add and renovate residential housing at Heritage Ranch, a Christian children's home that serves boys ages 13-17, providing family-style housing, counseling and comprehensive case management, with the goal of family reunification
• Plans for Burbank Apartments, a 235-unit complex at Nicholson and Burbank
• Final development plan approval for the Greens at Millerville
• A zoning revision to the Harveston concept plan at Nicholson Drive and Bluebonnet Boulevard.
The meeting begins at 5 p.m. on the third floor of City Hall, 222 St. Louis St. You can see the full agenda here. —April Castro

Read more from Business Report here: http://www.businessreport.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=daily-reportPM&date=20130520#ixzz2Txj3RvCh

[cajun]

That sounds like it's part of Southgate....unless they tore down something else.

Almost every vacant piece of land there is owned by LSU except for the few acres left at Southgate.

Edited May 22, 2013 by cajun

[itsjustme3]

Southgare was designed as four towers if I remember correctly. This sounds like its in the green space in front of Southgate Towers and separate.

[richyb83]

Hmmm...235 units in that space...another set of 3 story condos?? Hoping for at least another 8-story condo to match the other Southgate Towers.

 

Here is another article from Business Report...

 

 

A cautious comeback....Investors and developers in the Capital Region are again willing to take a chance on spec building, provided risk is minimized

The days of “if you build it, they will come” are pretty much over.

 

Still smarting from a national real-estate bust, neither investors nor developers are willing or able to take a chance erecting a vacant strip mall or a ready-made subdivision in hopes that buyers and tenants soon will come a-running. Even so, commercial and retail spec building is now making a cautious comeback in the Capital Region.

Richard Carmouche is adding another 100 new homes to the Settlement at Willow Grove, plus a retail component known as the Village at Willow Grove. Marc Blumberg and Emanual Organik will begin construction this summer on River House, a $26.4 million apartment, office and retail development on the former Prince Murat Hotel site at Nicholson Drive and Oklahoma Street. The owners of LeBlanc's Food Store spent $3.3 million for land at the corner of Airline Highway and Duplessis/Germany Road in Ascension Parish with plans for a 20,000-square-foot retail development anchored by a 49,000-square-foot grocery store. And an 8,000-square-foot commercial building looking for tenants is rising at the intersection of Jefferson Highway and Rue De Belle Maison, near Bluebonnet Boulevard.

 

But spec projects certainly aren't what they used to be. They're a bit less speculative, if you will.

 

Market observers say growing demand and rental rates are driving spec building. On the retail side, home sales in the greater Baton Rouge area rose 15.5% in 2012, according to sales statistics from the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors. Sales volume rose by $113.9 million, or 16.7%. At the same time, the inventory of homes for sale in the first quarter of 2013 was at its lowest level since late 2006. Hence the pressing interest in developments like Rouzan, The Long Farm, River House, Willow Grove, Bullion Crossing in Prairieville, and Village at Magnolia Square in Central.

 

As for commercial, vacancy rates for retail, office and industrial are hovering between 9% and 11%, with growth driven by the arrival of major retailers like Trader Joe's and Costco, the expected influx of third-party vendors following IBM, and the petrochemical construction boom. The latter is even encouraging some?spec buying, as with Point Clear Ventures I's recent $7 million purchase of the 273,600-square-foot distribution center just off Exchequer Drive that Home Depot plans to vacate in November 2014.

 

“For the past three or four years, there hasn't been a lot of construction,” says Ty Gose of Latter & Blum. “There's been a lot of vacant inventory. Now it's starting to tighten back up in retail, office and industrial. In parts of the city where there's not a lot of land left, you're starting to see building come back.” Most noticeable in the Capital Region, Walker says, is the preponderance of new developments anchored by grocery stores. Besides LeBlanc's in Ascension, there's Acadian Village, soon home to Trader Joe's and PetCo, in Baton Rouge.

 

*rest of article

http://www.businessreport.com/5152013/print-edition/A_cautious_comeback

Edited May 23, 2013 by richyb83

[cajun]

It's an awfully small space for 235 units if they are only going 3 stories.

[itsjustme3]

FYI - Longfarm has cleared dirt and paved streets. It's across from Old Jefferson Community Care.

[Antrell Williams]

FYI - Longfarm has cleared dirt and paved streets. It's across from Old Jefferson Community Care.

Two or three homes have began framing as well.

[richyb83]

University Edge Apartments is nearing completion at 650 West McKinley St., with an opening anticipated in August. Hallmark Campus Communities, of Columbus, Ohio, is developing the three-building complex, which includes 474 beds in 158 apartments.

Read more from Business Report here: http://www.businessreport.com/section/businessreport0113#ixzz2VwUCjFWU

[richyb83]

I want to see how they will add a 9th floor...while they are renovating...maybe they can add more windows??

 

Downtown BR Capital One building sold

 

An investment group led by David Weinstein and J. Dyke Nelson purchased the Capital One Bank building in downtown Baton Rouge for $4.3 million Friday and will add an additional floor to the eight-story building. Nelson said plans for the Third Street building’s redevelopment are wide open at this point, though the group is immediately seeking office tenants for the 114,000-square-foot building. Capital One, the building’s previous owner, recently moved to nearby One American Place but still has a branch on the building’s first floor for the next few weeks.

 

Nelson said that if the team decides to include residential and retail components, the building will retain at least 40,000 square feet of office space on the first, second and 6,000-square-foot ninth floor, which will feature a panoramic view of the city.

 

Rhorer said downtown currently has 2,200 residents, including the Spanish Town and Beauregard Town neighborhoods. He said he’d like to see that number get to between 5,000 and 6,000, which he noted is getting closer with projects like the proposed IBM towers and the former Commerce building on the drawing boards. “We’re getting there,” he said. “The infusion of development, whether it’s office or residential, on the Third Street corridor has such an impact on support services.”

 

*rest of article

http://theadvocate.com/home/6251332-125/downtown-br-capital-one-building

[itsjustme3]

9th floor screams restaurant or conference room

[steve3n8]

Rhorer says he'd like to see 5000-6000 downtown! Well ill double that and say i would like to see between 10,000-12,000. Not gonna happen though without continued support and great investment toward downtown's residential side.

Maybe one day......

[cajun]

9th floor screams restaurant or conference room

It would be an awesome office for an important person like myself.

[jefften10]

Rhorer says he'd like to see 5000-6000 downtown! Well ill double that and say i would like to see between 10,000-12,000. Not gonna happen though without continued support and great investment toward downtown's residential side.

Maybe one day......

That would be awesome. A River Place type development would be imperative to reach that large of a population downtown.

[Antrell Williams]

That would be awesome. A River Place type development would be imperative to reach that large of a population downtown.

I would rather 5 smaller buildings be built or renovated.

[richyb83]

I would like to see it all...a new sleek vertical neighborhood like River Place & the renovated older buildings!  Some nice mid-rise condo's 5 to 8 stories for North Blvd.

 

And some condos like this for River Park

[jefften10]

I would rather 5 smaller buildings be built or renovated.

Im just very infatuated with the idea of a new and more modern skyline. I love skyscrapers despite my fear of heights.

[Antrell Williams]

I love the idea as well. It's just if one of these towers are built, it will suck the market dry for projects that actually improve the streetscape and get rid of surface lots and empty store fronts.

[richyb83]

There is a bit of silliness in that last post of mine...just a big dreamer. I realize things will get done at a sluggish/snails pace, if ever at all. The turbulent "global" economy and perpetual war on terror will make many of these developments a crap-shoot.

[steve3n8]

To be honest, you are probably right Richy! In these times we are living in, it might not get any better. The global economy is doomed to fail one day, and it might not be to far away with the way things are going around the world...

[cajun]

I love the idea as well. It's just if one of these towers are built, it will suck the market dry for projects that actually improve the streetscape and get rid of surface lots and empty store fronts.

That was my beef with the proposed RiverPlace development for a while.