$21M Shopping Center Sale and Downtown Grocery Store Announcement Heat Up Baton Rouge Retail Market

By Eliza Theiss, Associate Editor

Shopping center sales, new retail developments, including a downtown option – Baton Rouge has recently seen them all.

Probably one of the most exciting announcements came from the Downtown Development District, touting, that for the first time in over half a century, Downtown Baton Rouge will feature a grocery store. With recent developments in the Capital City’s urban core, especially multifamily developments going up and/or replacing derelict office buildings, the search for a downtown grocer has been on for quite a while.

Cue the Matherne family, who has announced a 15,000-square-foot full-service supermarket for the first floor of the former Capital One building. Construction is slated to start within a few weeks’ time. Upon completion, the supermarket will offer fresh produce, fine wines and cheeses and a deli, among others.  The eight-story former office building, now renamed 440 Third Street is currently being redeveloped by the Matherne family. The mixed-use project will feature 65 one- and two-bedroom apartments, 50,000 square feet of office space and more than 100 parking spaces.

In other retail news, The Advocate announced the sale of the Bluebonnet Parc Shopping Center for $21.3 million. The shopping center adjacent to the Mall of Louisiana was sold by RPAI Baton Rouge LLC, an affiliate of national self-managed REIT Retail Properties of America Inc. to Cincinnati-based Viking Partners’ Fund II. The approximately 135,000-square-foot retail center could get a 15,000-square-foot expansion. A bevy of new tenants are also expected, as several major tenants, such as Cost Plus World Market and Vanguard College of Cosmetology are expected to relocate in 2014.

In further news, Belk Inc. has announced plans to establish a 75,000-square-foot store in the Juban Crossing shopping center in Livingston Parish, according to a report in the Charlotte Business Journal. Construction on the $7 million store is expected to kick off in February and complete in fall 2014.

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Rendering courtesy of Juban Crosing via Facebook and the Downtown Development District