Motivated by the expansion of nearby Baton Rouge Community College and the plans to revitalize its surrounding area, a veteran property owner has purchased the Georgetown and Charlestown Apartments at 825 N. Carrollton Ave. in the Melrose East neighborhood for $4 million.
“There’s a lot going on in the area,” says Brian Brousseau, who purchased the property on Aug. 3 from A&D Properties Inc., adding he started exploring the purchase due to the property’s proximity to BRCC. Jacques Brousseau, a nephew of Brian Brousseau and a sales agent for Patton Brantley Realty Group, brokered the sale.
Brousseau describes the area north of Florida Boulevard as “up and coming,” and says it presents good potential for investors like him who buy and renovate apartment complexes.
“I’m kind of spread out now,” says Brousseau, who also owns an apartment complex on Jefferson Highway and another behind the Bon Carré Business Center on Florida Boulevard.
Brousseau says he’s also tried to purchase other apartment complexes in the area, but other developers have beat him to them.
The Georgetown and Charlestown Apartments, which include 178 units, is located between North Donmoor Avenue and North Ardenwood Drive. Brousseau says he plans to update and modernize the complex with new countertops and modern flooring, among other improvements, much like he’s done with other Baton Rouge apartments he owns. About 29 units are currently vacant, he says.
The complex is located approximately 1.1 miles from BRCC’s main campus and less than two miles from three new educational complexes being constructed in the 200-acre Ardendale development. BRCC building a 86,000-square foot automotive training center and a 20,000-square-foot building to house an auto body collision repair training center and general classrooms. The East Baton Rouge Parish School System is building a new career academy on the same site.
Brousseau hasn’t been the only investor who has recently purchased an apartment complex near BRCC. In March, David Treppendahl, head of NAI/Latter & Blum’s Multi-Family Division, paid $2.9 million for the 284-unit Hawthorne Heights Apartments. The apartments are located across the street from Ardendale.
—Alexandria Burris
