Rouses Market this morning signed a 20-year lease to take over and move into the space Matherne’s Supermarket currently occupies at 7580 Bluebonnet Blvd. in the Bluebonnet Village Shopping Center.
Rouses CEO Donny Rouse says the Matherne’s Bluebonnet store closed today, and his company will begin remodeling the 32,000-square-foot space on Wednesday.
The Thibodaux-based supermarket chain will embark on a $3 million renovation to remodel the store’s interior with new floors, ceiling and decor.
A new floor plan that changes the flow of the store and includes a large perishable department also has been designed, Rouse says, adding that the store’s exterior also will receive a makeover.
The Bluebonnet store will remain closed throughout the remodel and is expected to reopen as a Rouses Market in the late summer, Rouse says.
“It’s a great location for our supermarket. It’s an area that we’ve been wanting to get in and hadn’t been able to get a spot to build a store,” he tells Daily Report.
The nearly 60-year-old Rouses became the largest grocery store chain in the Capital Region last year with the announcement that the Rouse family was buying all nine LeBlanc’s Food Stores in the region.
“We need to grow in order to create our market share,” Rouse says. “We’re fortunate that things are going well for our company and that we can get in other local communities.”
The Bluebonnet Village Shopping Center store will be the third Rouses Market in the city of Baton Rouge. The other two are at the Long Farm Village off Airline Highway and Drusilla Village off Jefferson Highway.
A fourth is planned to anchor Arlington Marketplace at Burbank and Lee drives, but the deal has yet to be finalized, Rouse says.
Rouse says the opportunity to take over the Matherne’s lease in Bluebonnet Village came about during a conversation with the store’s owner, Ernie Matherne, who wanted to concentrate on his other stores.
Matherne previously had discussed selling the Bluebonnet store to New Orleans-based Robert Fresh Market, but Robert decided against purchasing. The New Orleans supermarket chain, however, did buy the Matherne’s store at 7355 Highland Road in Kenilworth.
Read a recent Business Report cover story about how Rouse became Baton Rouge’s biggest grocer at just 34 years old. Rouses has more than 50 stores across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
—Alexandria Burris
