Nearly four months after shutting down amidst rising floodwaters, The Royal Standard at 16016 Perkins Road is set to reopen later this week.
The store—one of five in the locally-owned chain, which sells furniture, gifts and home accessories—took on nearly three feet of water during the historic August flood. Owners Mark and Krista Peirce were initially unsure if they wanted to renovate and reopen the store.
But Mark Peirce says after talking to loyal customers the couple decided to rebuild their flagship store. It helped that they had flood insurance on the property, so they filed a claim early on and were able to secure a contractor before labor became scarce.
“We never would’ve closed this building for three months to do what we did, but it will end up being a blessing,” Mark Peirce says. “The store is 100 times better than it was. We have a new tile floors, a drop ceiling—it’s a lot fresher, cleaner, nicer.”
The Royal Standard is one of many Capital Region retailers struggling to reopen in time for the holiday shopping season. In recent weeks, several stores and restaurants at the Juban Crossing development in hard-hit Livingston Parish have announced reopenings, as well as retailers in Central and along the busy Millerville Road commercial corridor. Though the Baton Rouge Area Chamber is not tracking the number of businesses that have reopened since the flood, the Livingston Parish Chamber of Commerce is keeping a running tab of the progress of businesses in that parish.
For retailers like The Royal Standard, the holiday season is critical for the store’s performance throughout the rest of the year. To that end, the store will kick off its Twelve Days of Christmas event when it celebrates its grand reopening Thursday. Though that will actually be 16 days before Christmas, Mark Peirce says they want to give customers an opportunity to take advantage of holiday specials.
“We have people literally knocking on our doors asking if they can come in,” he says.
—Stephanie Riegel
