The 45,200-square-foot office building at 400 North Blvd. formerly occupied by Baton Rouge Savings and Loan was sold on Dec. 5 for $3 million, or $66.37 per square foot. According to Jim Allen with Saurage Rotenberg Commercial Real Estate, the building is situated on a 22,144-square-foot site, which includes enough parking spaces for about 18 vehicles. The seller was 400 North Boulevard LLC, represented by Bob Dean. The purchaser was Super Hospitality Owners LLC, represented by Allen. The property was recently approved for a TIF deal and State Historical Tax Credits. According to Allen, the new owner also plans to apply for additional federal tax credits. Allen says the city-parish had at one time considered buying the property for a potential parking garage.  The new owners haven’t revealed their plans for the property, but their group name indicates there’s potential for a hotel project.
—Another recent sale of note is a $300,000 deal for a roughly 4,000-square-foot office building at 14858 South Harrell’s Ferry Road, formerly home to TMC Shipping Co. It was purchased by Ryco Enterprises LLC on Dec. 5. The approximately 1.5-acre site had been listed with Andy Batson of Beau Box Commercial Real Estate for as much as $399,000. Tim Smith and Ty Gose with NAI/Latter & Blum Commercial Properties represented the buyer. The sales price on the office space works out to about $75 per square foot. The new owner plans to rehabilitate the office building and offer it for lease, and construct an office warehouse on the excess land on site.
—Crawfish Aquatics has now assembled a 7.2-acre tract off Siegen Lane with the recent closing of a 2.4-acre parcel for $732,294, or approximately $6.95 per square foot. The purchase, which closed last week, comes on the heels of a $1,446,316 deal Crawfish Aquatics made in August for an adjoining 4.8 acres. Mark Hebert of Kurz & Hebert Commercial Real Estate brokered both transactions. Crawfish Aquatics is planning to develop a 40,000-square-foot swimming and recreational facility on the property.

A&D Medical has sold a 4.82-acre tract that’s situated one block off the intersection of La. 30 and La. 44 in Park Eastbank Subdivision in Gonzales. The property is located at the dead end of West Eastbank Street (Map it). The sale closed on Oct. 29 for $530,000, or about $2.50 per square foot. A&D Medical had purchased the property in August 2009 for about $1.40 per square foot. The sale was brokered by David Vercher with KW Commercial Real Estate, who represented the seller, and Joe Moore with Re/Max First, who represented the buyer. According to Vercher, interest in the property was fairly strong, reflecting an improving market in Ascension Parish. “I see inventory being absorbed at a tremendous rate in comparison to just one year ago,” he says. “I believe land and warehouse properties in the Gonzales area will become limited in the months to come.” The new owner, RRL Holdings LLC, represented by Marcel Lemoine and John Robert, has not announced plans for the property.

It seems that most of the region’s commercial land sales these days are taking place in the industrial sector, the most recent of which being the Nov. 21 sale of an 8.35-acre parcel in West Baton Rouge Parish by Teche Federal Bank. The buyer is Costal Bridge Company. Situated on Safe Energy Drive off La. 1 between Airline Highway and Rosedale Road, the property was listed at $280,000—and it sold within 30 days. Teche, which had acquired the site from Rural Properties LLC, sold it for $275,000, or about $32,934 per acre. Mathew Laborde and Branon Pesnell of Beau Box Commercial Real Estate represented the seller, while Andy Batson—also with Beau Box—represented the buyer. “Within the last 18 months a similar property on the same street sold for around $20,000 per acre, so it looks like property values are increasing,” Laborde says. Costal Bridge has no immediate plans to develop the property.

Bobby Smith with NAI/Latter & Blum Commercial Real Estate recently sold two lots in Commerce Point, the industrial use subdivision he’s developing off La. 30, near the Ciba Geigy Access Road, in Ascension Parish. That’s encouraging news for Smith, who likes to say that the financial crisis started on Aug. 16, 2008—the day parish officials approved the subdivision. “After that, everything stopped,” says Smith, who at one point was reduced to listing the lots for around $4 per square foot because sales were so slow. The recent sales in the development indicate that market conditions have improved. Each of the deals worked out to about $5.52 per square foot. Smith sold Bayou Safety and TWE Engineering Group each a 38,060-square-foot lot; each lot sold for $210,00. Both lots measure 110-by-350-feet and will be improved with industrial use buildings. Bayou Safety is planning a 7,000-square-foot, air-conditioned metal building in which to conduct industrial safety training, while TWE will build an office warehouse on its site. “A couple of years makes a big difference. We have closed on six lots this year and only have three lots left to sell,” Smith says.

A 2,420-square-foot office building occupied by Altus Wealth Management sold last week to Paperless Properties LLC for a $420,000, or about $173.50 per square foot. Located in the Versailles Office Park on Siegen Lane, just south of Perkins Road, the building is well-finished, with good quality materials and workmanship, according to Doug Ferris with Re/Max Commercial Properties, who brokered the deal. The relatively high price per square foot is reminiscent of the better real estate economy of 2007, prior to the recession. “We had pretty strong interest in the building, and there appears to be buyers out there now looking for good quality office space,” Ferris says. Paperless Properties currently leases a building across Siegen Lane from its new purchase, and will relocate in the new space. “Paperless Properties was looking to both expand and upgrade the space they were in, and this building allowed them to stay in the same area and do both,” Ferris says. Altus is also expanding and consolidating into space currently under construction on Bluebonnet Boulevard.

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