Southern Pipe & Supply purchases property in Denham Springs, plans move

Southern Pipe Company has forked over $975,000 to buy the roughly three-acre property at 101 Hatchell Lane in Denham Springs that formerly housed Dodge City Feed and Farm Supply. Dodge City had been in operation for over 40 years when it closed near the end of last year.

Southern Pipe & Supply closed on the property Thursday and intends to move its current operations on Rushing Road in Denham Springs to to the site.

The property includes about 24,000 square feet of building space. The company will begin renovations to the building next month and should have its operations moved to the new site by this fall. The sale price works out to about $40 per square foot, which is a pretty good price when you compare it to what it would cost to purchase land and build a new building.

The sellers, Jimmy Smith Jr. and Jeanne Serio Smith, were represented by Jo Anne Dunkin with Covington & Associates Real Estate. Southern Pipe was represented by Aaron Goolsby, also with Covington & Associates.

“The site will allow the new owner to have plenty of room to store product,” says Goolsby. “And the buildings will be given a facelift and improved to accommodate the new operation. We think it will be good for the city.”

Southern Pipe has more than 100 locations across Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.

Majority of Prairieville mixed-use development sells for $1M

The majority of the mixed-use property known as DéGagé Condominiums, located on La. 42 about one mile east of its intersection with Airline Highway in Prairieville, sold last week for $1 million.

The original development consisted of 10 condos, infrastructure and enough land to develop nine additional condos, as well as two commercial lots containing about 20,000 square feet each. Boulle Properties LLC, represented by Robert Dupre, bought the property from First Bank and Trust.

According to Michael Stinson, who represented the seller along with Hank Saurage of Saurage Rotenberg Commercial Real Estate, says the sale includes seven of the 10 existing condos, as well as the land for additional condos and commercial developments. Chris Cramer with Ruston Properties represented the buyer as broker.

“The new owner intends to rezone the condominium lots for a townhouse development and may develop the commercial lots with additional multifamily units,” Cramer says.

Lots sell at Walker Industrial Park for a number of office developments

Tower Capital Corporation recently sold a number of lots at Walker Industrial Park off Florida Boulevard that soon will be developed with office buildings.

Tower Capital, represented by Nick FaKouri, sold a pair of lots totaling 107,450 square feet to RHM Holdings LLC for $128,000, or about $1.20 per square foot. RHM plans to construct a 6,000-square-foot building on one of the lots, which will be occupied by Walker-Hill Environmental. Walker-Hill currently occupies an older building at 11010 Florida Blvd. in Walker. It will relocate to the new building and plans to construct at a later date another building on the second lot it purchased.

Propvest LLC, represented by Philip N. Haddad and Raymond Heck, also purchased in the industrial park a pair of lots totaling 72,465 square feet for $94,000, or about $1.30 per square foot. Haddad and Heck will construct an office warehouse for Comfort Control Heating & Air on the site.

“Activity has been good since the first of the year; we have a purchase agreement for another lot and plans to build a spec building on another lot,” says FaKouri.

Last year, FaKouri purchased 16 lots in the park for $575,000. Most range in size from about one acre to two acres, with one containing 4.85 acres and another 4.11 acres. It looks like the investment is turning out to be a pretty good one for FaKouri, as he has recouped about 40% of his initial investment in about a year—and he still has nine lots and two tracts left to sell.

La Carreta owners latest to ink a lease at upcoming Prairieville shopping center

Construction continues on Commerce Centre 42 Retail, the 34,000-square-foot shopping center going up on Airline Highway in Prairieville, between Commerce Centre Drive and Market Place Drive.

The most recent lease agreement in the center was made by the owners of the La Caretta Mexican restaurants, who will open a Tex-Mex concept on the end cap space with 3,000 square feet and an outside patio. Mike Stinson of Saurage Rotenberg Commercial Real Estate represented the La Caretta owners.

The shopping center project is part of a much larger real estate investment that includes Bouillon Crossing, a residential subdivision, and the Commerce Centre Office Park. A group of investors, spearheaded by Raymond Heck, purchased the property a few years ago. Of the 34,000 square feet available in the center, only about 4,700 square feet—or about 14%—remains unleased.

Other occupants of the center include Geisha, a sushi and hibachi grill that will occupy about 4,500 square feet, and Fit Blends, which will occupy about 1,500 square feet. Rental rates are being quoted in the $18-per-square-foot range.

Scot Guidry with Mike Falgoust & Associates Commercial Real Estate is the center’s leasing agent. The idea to develop a retail center on the Prairieville site was launched last year at the annual Trends in Real Estate Seminar, when Lynn Daigle with NAI/Latter & Blum approached Guidry about doing a build-to-suit for Gold’s Gym. The owners leased 20,000 square feet of the center to Gold’s and started construction.

“We have had a lot of interest from a lot of different users over the last few months, and we expect to be 100% occupied before construction is finished,” says Guidry.

The space is scheduled to be turned over to the tenants sometime in June, and the stores should open by the end of the summer.

 

Drago’s Seafood BR Location to be built on Highland tract sold for $2.85M

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.

Vivid Ink unloads last of nine BR area parcels at solid price

At $88.57 per square foot, Huy Tuyet Tran got a solid price on a 10,500-square-foot warehouse he recently purchased from Vivid Ink Graphics, especially considering the 6,500 square feet of warehouse space in the building is climate controlled and has 31 tons of heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

As Daily Report first reported, Vivid Ink sold the building at 11670 Cedar Park Ave. for $930,000 in a deal that closed last week.

Mark Hebert with Kurz & Hebert Commercial Real Estate, who brokered the transaction, says this building was the last of nine total properties he has sold for Vivid Ink since the Baton Rouge-based sign maker and print shop bought the 31,000-square-foot building at the Florida Boulevard and Airline Highway intersection last year and consolidated its operations there.

“We had the building under contract with another purchaser for $950,000. That didn’t close, but we had a lot of interest from other purchasers and had a backup agreement for $930,000 from Tran relatively quickly and he closed on the deal,” Hebert says. “The building was not but about six or seven years old and worked perfectly for what the new owners were going to use it.”

Tran imports LED lights and signs from China. Joe Cashio with Cashio Realty, who represented the buyer, says Tran should be able to move in within the next few weeks without needing any renovations.

“We had been looking for some climate controlled space and it is scarce, so when Mark called to let me know the building was available we jumped on it,” Cashio says.

D’Iberville Apartments in Addis sell for $1.56M

The D’Iberville Apartments at 7520 Chad Ave. in Addis have sold for $1,562,500, or about $32,500 for each of the complex’s mix of 48 two- and three-bedroom apartments. The seller, Patricia Hidalgo Amoroso, owns other multifamily holdings in the Baton Rouge area, but this property was the only apartment she had on the west side of the Mississippi River.

Sources close to the transaction say Amoroso wanted to sell the West Baton Rouge Parish property so she could concentrate on properties on the east side of the river. The deal closed Wednesday; Amoroso was represented by real estate brokers Will Adams and Bobby Box of Property One Commercial Real Estate.

Sunrise Land LLC, represented by broker Lacy Howe with Clay Companies, bought the complex, which fetches monthly rents ranging from $500 to $650 per month.

“The project was attractive because there is very little competition for Class B product in Addis. You either have upscale apartments or trailers, and apartments in this price range are hard to find” Adams say.

The complex has some minor deferred maintenance issues, but no major repairs are required. Sunrise Land plans to complete some minor repairs and continue to operate the complex as is.

“The purchasers had sold another piece of property in north Louisiana and were looking for a stable investment, and this property fit their investment criteria,” Howe says, adding some of the tenants have been in the complex since 1994.

Delta Tech has room to grow even further with St. Gabriel purchase

Chemical plant cleaning firm Delta Tech Services looked for a new spot for its headquarters for more than four months before settling on a 2.5-acre site in St. Gabriel. The site includes three buildings totalling roughly 17,500 square feet, as well as yard storage.

“They had been renting a building in Ascension (Parish) and were looking to own something,” says Joe Moore with RE/Max First, who represented the firm in the purchase. “The three buildings were designed for industrial manufacturing so they fit perfectly with Delta Tech’s service industrial cleaning operation.”

As first reported by Daily Report, the sale closed on Jan. 9 for $990,000. The sales price works out to about $56.50 per square foot. Delta Tech bought the property and warehouse buildings at 3525 Delta Drive from Petrous Properties. The buildings include overhead cranes and a three-phase heavy electric system.

“We did not market the property for more than about six months, and we had pretty strong interest,” says Chris Gremillion of NAI/Latter & Blum Commercial Real Estate, who represented the seller in the deal.

With the buy, Delta Tech has purchased more real estate than the company currently needs, and the additional square footage will allow it to expand operations even further. The cleaning firm, which hopes to move into the new location by May, intends to renovate the office and upgrade the yard storage area.

Hardee’s buys former Best Boilers Building on S. Sherwood for Second BR restaurant

Hardee’s has acquired a building on South Sherwood Forest Boulevard for its second Baton Rouge restaurant. The fast food chain bought land on O’Neal Lane a few months ago for its first restaurant in the city.

Best Boilers most recently occupied the location on South Sherwood, which Hardee’s has purchased for $665,000, but the structure was originally built for Schlotzsky’s Deli. The sale closed on Dec. 18.

At 2,613 square feet, the building’s purchase price works out to about $255 per square foot. Hank Saurage and Edward Rotenberg represented the seller, Sherwood Pointe LLC. Ken Jacobsmeyer with Saurage Rotenberg Commercial Real Estate brokered the transaction.

The purchaser, Forest Justice BTS LLC, is a preferred developer for Paradigm Investment Group, one of the largest franchisees for Hardee’s.

Paradigm will begin renovations in March, and Hardee’s should occupy the building shortly after the work is complete. I’m looking forward to having a fried bologna and velveeta cheese biscuit as soon as the restaurant opens.

18 Condos off Airline sell for $925K, to be Converted to Corporate Housing

A few years ago, Allen Walsh bought the 18 duplex units in the South Park Apartments, located just off Airline Highway near the intersection of Jefferson Highway, then converted them into condos and changed the name to Live Oak Circle.

Now the complex, which consists of two-, three- and four-bedroom units, has been sold to Elf Oaks LLC, a California investor, for $925,000. The property was purchased from IberiaBank.  Carmen Austin and Hank Saurage with Saurage Rotenberg Commercial Real Estate brokered the transaction, which closed Dec. 30.

Elf Oaks plans to renovate the 18 units into short- and long-term corporate housing catering to movie industry employees and to workers relocated to the Baton Rouge area. At the time the property was purchased, 13 units were occupied. Renovations should begin shortly.