BRAF real estate arm buys Main Street building for $2.2M

Commercial Properties Realty Trust, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation’s real estate company, has purchased the downtown building at 500 Main St. that is home to Stantec, formerly ABMB Engineers, for $2.2 million. In a sale that closed on Thursday, CPRT 500 Main LLC—which was incorporated in May by Commercial Properties General Counsel Ty McMains—purchased the building from Highland Road Properties Inc., which is owned by Mike Bruce, Mike McGaugh and Steve Boudreaux. All three are principals of ABMB, which was acquired by the Canadian engineering firm Stantec in 2012. Bruce declines to comment on the sale this morning, but sources familiar with the transaction say the firm has no plans to move at this time and will continue to lease the building from CPRT. A BRAF spokesperson did not return a call for comment by this morning’s deadline. Last week CPRT celebrated the groundbreaking of Onyx Residences, a $7 million, mixed-use development at the corner of Third and Convention streets that is expected to be completed in about a year. On Wednesday, the Metro Council will consider approval of a deal with BRAF to operate the parking garage at Third and Convention streets. As Daily Report has previously reported, the deal is tied to other transactions at the Water Campus—which is another massive project downtown that is the brainchild of BRAF. The foundation also partnered with the state and the city to acquire the riverfront land for development of the IBM complex downtown, and earlier this year BRAF sold developer Mike Wampold the former state office building at 150 N. Third St., which Wampold plans to develop into a hotel. —Stephanie Riegel