Pelican Point Commerce Center lands a national tenant before construction even begins

St. John Properties plans to expand the Pelican Point Commerce Center in Gonzales after submitting new construction permits for a pair of nearly 33,000-square-foot speculative industrial buildings.

One building is already slated to be leased in its entirety to Virginia-based Groundworks, a national foundation repair company that will establish a new operation in the Baton Rouge area, according to Todd Pevey of St. John Properties.

“We’ve already leased one of them to fill the whole thing, and so we’re 50% full before we even started construction out there, which is great,” Pevey tells Ascension Business Report.

Construction is expected to wrap up in early summer 2027, with delivery targeted for June. Plans call for the two buildings to be 32,626 square feet each at a cost $3.4 million apiece. Pevey says the Gonzales location will be Groundworks’ first in Louisiana.

The latest expansion builds on a commerce center that has been operating since the first building was completed in 2008, at the end of the post-Hurricane Katrina Go Zone incentive period.

Today, the development consists of three completed buildings totaling roughly 100,000 square feet and housing approximately 10 to 12 tenants. Current tenants include Home Depot, Penske and Crown Crafts International, along with several regional companies.

Pevey attributes the project’s success to both Ascension Parish’s industrial growth and the property’s location along Interstate 10 between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

While the center continues to attract petrochemical-related tenants, Pevey says its interstate access has also made it an increasingly attractive distribution hub. He estimates that just under half of the center’s tenants are distribution companies, with slightly fewer serving the petrochemical industry.

“Our site also has turned out, because of its position right at the interstate, to be a real hub for distribution types, whether they’re related to petrochem or not,” he says. “It’s just the positioning between Baton Rouge and New Orleans is a real saver for distribution tenants because of the time and the fuel, and the savings that they get from those things if they’re going back and forth, or even in the south Louisiana region.”

St. John Properties also has room for two additional buildings along the interstate, though Pevey says the company is still evaluating whether to move forward with those future phases.