Southern Lifestyle To Build $325M Mixed-Use Development on Former Cattle Ranch

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

A Lafayette-based developer plans to start work on a massive, mixed-use development in the Baton Rouge metro area. The $325 million project will replace a former cattle ranch with retail stores, apartments and homes.

According to The Advocate, Southern Lifestyle Development is under contract to purchase the largest piece of undeveloped land in the city of Gonzales, for $8 million. Prescott Bailey, manager of Southern Lifestyle, told the newspaper that his company plans to close the deal in spring. The piece of land, known locally as the M.P. Evans property, stretches over 344 acres, on La. 44, just south of I-10. Southern Lifestyle could start construction this summer.

Conway Plantation, as the project is called, will be developed in phases, over the next six years. It will include two- and three-story buildings, with apartments over restaurants and shops, as well as green areas, for concerts and other events, nine lakes, jogging and walking trails. The developers expect to invest about $50 million in the land and infrastructure.

There will be 930 residential lots in Conway Plantation, with prices for single-family homes starting from the low $200,000s and up to the $400,000s. Twenty acres of land are set aside for apartment buildings.

Conway Plantation isn’t Southern Lifestyle only project in the Greater Baton Rouge area. A few weeks ago, the company announced its plans to start work this year on The Settlement on Shoecreek, a community with about 700 homes in Central.