Popular New Orleans restaurant Drago’s Seafood plans to build a Baton Rouge location on a roughly 3.2-acre site in front of the Country Club of Louisiana on Highland Road that has been sold for $2.85 million, according the deal’s broker.
A New Orleans investor, under a limited liability company called Venture Highland, purchased the site for about $20.15 per square foot from Highland Gates Properties. The seller, represented by Jerry Dodson and Haji Bonakchi, had purchased the property in June 2008 for $1.65 million, or about $11.67 per square foot. The sale was brokered by Robby Durham at Durham Real Estate.
According to Durham, the New Orleans investor secured Drago’s Seafood as a tenant prior to the purchase. A mixed-use development will be built on site, he says, with Drago’s occupying about 12,000 square feet.
“The building will be multiple stories and have a combination of restaurant, retail, office and high-end residential on the top floor,” Durham says. “We already have the penthouse pre-sold and are quoting rental rates for the retail space at $25 to $30 per square foot and are having pretty strong interest.”
Construction on the new building will begin sometime this year.
