Industrial investment continues to drive commercial real estate activity across Ascension Parish, with developers and retailers positioning themselves for continued population and job growth, according to Momentum Commercial Real Estate President Charlie Colvin.
Colvin says major industrial projects are creating ripple effects throughout the parish as new workers increase demand for housing, retail, restaurants and services.
“I think there’s been a lot of interest in Ascension kind of overall,” Colvin says. “Certainly led by CF Industries and the investment that’s happened at Hyundai, all of the people, both on the construction side and the full-time employment side, that will require households and then all of the related services. If we’re bringing 1,000 new people, those people need a place to live, need a place to grocery shop, eat dinner, have medical services, etc.”
The strongest retail activity remains concentrated in Gonzales and Prairieville.
A recent report by Momentum Commercial Real Estate states that Prairieville and the US-61 corridor south of the city remain underserved relative to the rooftop count. Residential growth out there has outpaced retail development.
“There continues to be retail demand in the Gonzales area,” he says. “Several new things at Heritage Crossing have popped up, the new Aldi development at Burnside and Airline, and certainly in Prairieville, a number of probably smaller users that are interested in looking at the area.”
Colvin says Prairieville’s longer-term commercial outlook could be influenced by continued residential growth, the emergence of nearby St. George and changing employment patterns.
“It’ll be interesting to see what happens kind of long term in the Prairieville area,” he says. “Historically, Ascension Parish has been driven mostly by the school district, and people want to live there and commute into Baton Rouge, but depending on what happens with St. George, and certainly a lot of employment shifting from maybe working in downtown Baton Rouge to other parts of Ascension Parish, will change that dynamic a little bit.”
Even with those evolving factors, Colvin says the parish’s fundamentals remain strong. “It’s a really good market and good fundamentals here, good households, good household incomes,” he says.
Donaldsonville, he says, is more of a long-term opportunity than an immediate retail target.
Colvin says Momentum is monitoring the market, but national retailers are taking a cautious approach while they wait for industrial announcements to translate into permanent population growth. “We haven’t seen a whole lot of big users or retailers that are interested,” he says. “I do think it’s probably a wait-and-see on exactly what’s going to happen there.”
He says larger retailers rely heavily on population data before committing to new stores.
Read a previous Ascension Business Report article on Donaldsonville’s recent growth.
