Bluffs clubhouse draws $1.2 million bid at auction

An auction of The Bluffs clubhouse today drew a high bid of $1.2 million. David Gilmore of Sperry Van Ness/Gilmore Auction of Kenner, which handled the sale, would not disclose the name of the winning bidder. The 19,786-square-foot clubhouse near St. Francisville has been in limbo since March 2009, when former owner Jim Tanner shut down the golf course. First American Bank of Vacherie foreclosed on the clubhouse and will decide whether or not to accept the high bid. Gilmore says he will meet with First American officials in a week. "I don't know what their expectations were," he says. About 10 bidders participated in the auction. Gilmore says it was an "unprecedented situation," to sell just a clubhouse and not a golf course or land as well. The property had been marketed for several uses, such as a fine dining restaurant, a sports bar or an executive conference center. —Timothy Boone

Movie shooting to affect Third Street Monday

A section of Third Street will be intermittently closed Monday for filming of The Ledge, a movie starring Liv Tyler. The section between North Boulevard and Convention Street will be closed off and on between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. that day. City officials say there are no plans to block off vehicles or foot traffic along that section of Third Street for an extended period. A section of Convention Street between Third and Lafayette streets will be set aside all week long for trucks used in the filming. The Ledge, which also stars Terrence Howard, Patrick Wilson and Charlie Hunnam, will shoot at various locations across the city through mid-April. According to IMDB, the independent movie is set for release next year.

Stabiler reopens Perkins Road restaurant

Wayne Stabiler, who closed his City Café on Perkins Road in May, has reopened the facility as South Perkins Market and Deli. A seafood market, selling hot boiled crawfish, is now open, and the restaurant near the Siegen Lane intersection will reopen in 10 days, says Stabiler. "The building had drainage issues, so we redid it," Stabiler says. The new restaurant will serve a full breakfast, home-cooked plate lunches—including favorites such as meatloaf and smothered chicken—and boiled seafood at night. Some of the special salads Stabiler serves at his two Little Village restaurants have been added to the menu. South Perkins Market will also offer catering. —Timothy Boone

LED shifting resources to retain companies

Louisiana's economic development head is shifting resources from the recruitment of out-of-state businesses to the retention of existing companies and helping the latter to expand. Stephen Moret, Louisiana Economic Development secretary, told legislators he plans to add three employees to the existing force of three who focus on business retention and expansion. The workers will be taken from a group of 18 state employees who work mainly on attracting companies from other states. The change is being made because the business retention program, which was launched two years ago, has proved extremely popular, Moret told the House Appropriations Committee during a review of his agency's proposed budget. The state is running out of money in the various incentive funds created by the Legislature in recent years to help lure businesses and keep existing companies from going elsewhere. Moret said the incentive offers his department already has made to various companies would deplete the $176 million currently available. At least one project that already won a commitment of state dollars is now on hold because of the uncertainty of federal support. The state has allocated $102 million to help the Michoud Assembly Facility transition from making external fuel tanks for the space shuttle to helping with NASA's Constellation rocket launch program.

Monsanto opens major expansion of La. plant

Monsanto Co. has opened an expansion of its Luling plant, which will increase the company's production of agricultural herbicide by 20%. The $196 million project in St. Charles Parish resulted in 26 new jobs. The plant employs 690 at an average salary of $88,000 and 200 full-time contract workers. Industrial hydrogen provider Air Products and Chemicals Inc. signed a long-term supply contract with Monsanto in October. Air Products is building a new plant at Monsanto's Luling plant and received $78.75 million in GO Zone bonds for that project; plans are for two new hydrogen products pipelines to connect Addis to Port Allen and Norco to New Orleans. That operation is scheduled to open in January 2012.

Initial unemployment claims up in La.

First-time claims for unemployment increased in the week ending Saturday. There were 4,203 new claims last week, compared with 3,541 for the week ending Feb. 20, according to the Louisiana Workforce Commission. First-time claims were also higher than for the comparable week last year. For the week of Feb. 28, 2009, there were 3,497 initial unemployment claims. Continuing claims dropped, however, from 61,152 for the week ending Feb. 20 to 60,484 last week.

Work on a movie set not so glamorous

Long before the commands “Lights! Camera! Action!” someone has to pick up lunch—and take care of a whole lot of other things movie viewers never think about. Sara Bartkiewicz knows. Movies wouldn’t even happen if it weren’t for people like her. But glamorous? “A production assistant is a gofer,” Bartkiewicz said, while taking a break from work to visit family in Baton Rouge. “You do everything to anything—copying, filing, picking up the coffee, picking up lunch every day for the office crew and anything that needs to be done. Driving around in a car, dropping scripts off to actors, working from 6 a.m. to 8 at night if that’s what it takes.” To learn more about the movie jobs behind the scenes, read the 225 magazine story here.

GM to reinstate 600 dealerships slated to be cut

General Motors Co. will reinstate more than half the dealerships it targeted to drop from its network. GM executives say about 600 dealerships out of the 1,100 seeking to stay with GM will receive letters giving them the option to remain with the automaker. The Detroit automaker last year told 2,000 dealerships it would revoke their franchise agreements in October 2010 as part of its restructuring. The company has said it needs to shrink the number of showrooms to keep the remaining ones healthy. Dealership owners who object to what they deem unfair treatment have been appealing the decision. The cuts to GM's 6,000-dealer network were designed to compensate for much lower demand for cars and trucks, but some dealers have argued that lots that are still profitable are at risk, and that the automaker hasn't offered enough details about how it's choosing which businesses to shutter. Chrysler, which has slashed 789 dealers, and GM have said they would reconsider the cuts. The decision was a compromise meant to avoid federal legislation that would require that the showrooms be kept open.

News roundup: La. gets $80 million broadband grant ... Alexandria man buys Saints flag displayed by Indiana governor

Onramps to the information superhighway: Louisiana is receiving an $80 million federal grant for 900 miles of fiber-optic cable that will expand the reach of broadband Internet to rural and poor areas of the state. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke says the cable will stretch broadband to 100,000 households, 15,000 businesses and 150 institutions, such as schools, universities and medical centers. Locke says a third of Louisiana residents don't have access to the Internet, and many others are still using dial-up connections. U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu says the project began with initiatives put forward by the Louisiana Board of Regents and Louisiana Public Broadcasting. Private Internet service providers will use the cable to bring service to homes and businesses.

High bidder: A New Orleans Saints flag that Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels displayed outside his office as a result of losing a Super Bowl bet with Gov. Bobby Jindal is heading to Louisiana after it sold in an online auction for $6,852. The governor's office says Bryan Bossier Sr. of Alexandria won the flag as bids in the final 30 seconds of the auction that ended Thursday jumped by more than $2,000. Daniels will autograph the flag, which spent a week near his Statehouse door. The money is going to an inner-city youth sports program run by Tabernacle Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis. Daniels set a condition that all youth football participants must learn to recover an onside kick—a mistake that hurt the Colts in the Super Bowl.