Rouses Supermarket has acquired a 4.8-acre parcel at Long Farm Village and will begin construction later this year on a 55,000-square-foot supermarket that will anchor the first retail phase of the development at the intersection of Airline Highway and the future extension of Antioch Road.
The deal, which was originally announced last fall, closed June 13 for an undisclosed price. Court documents list the sale price as $10 with other considerations. But other parcels of similar size and profile in the area have sold for between $5 and $10 per square foot, which amounts to between $218,250 and $436,500 per acre.
Long Farm Village developer Russell Mosely declines to discuss the sale price, but he says the significance of having the grocery store in his 237-acre traditional neighborhood development cannot be overstated.
“If you are going to do a real TND you have to have the retail component, because the whole goal of the TND is to keep people from having to leave,” he says.
The store will be the Thibodaux-based supermarket chain’s first location in Baton Rouge. It is scheduled to open in 2015. In addition to Rouses, the first retail phase of Long Farm Village will include more than 80,000 square feet of retail space along Airline Highway.
Mosely will develop that portion of the project himself. He is currently in discussion with several potential tenants, including restaurants, a bank, a coffee shop, a florist and a dry cleaner. So far, about 20 homes at Long Farm are built or are under construction. Mosely says 90% of them are sold.
The final development plan for a third phase of Long Farm will go before the Planning Commission for approval tonight. Unlike the first two phases, which are being developed by national homebuilder D.R. Horton, the third phase will be developed by individual contractors and will consist of 40 single-family lots on 11.2 acres.
