Developer Prescott Bailey’s ambitious plans for a 250-acre residential development on River Road near Bayou Manchac—Atwater—have fallen through.
Bailey confirms that he has decided against moving forward with the project, which called for the eventual development of more than 800 single-family lots, and has let his 2017 purchase agreement on the property lapse.
“Sometimes, from a construction standpoint, the numbers just don’t work out,” he says, declining to elaborate.
Bailey unveiled plans for Atwater, which were later approved by the planning commission, in May 2017. But the project never got off the ground.
In September 2018, he entered into a purchase agreement with builder Carlos Alvarez, who planned to buy 500 lots and develop homes averaging 2,000 square feet and selling for around $300,000. That deal also is off.
Given the growth in the area, Bailey believes someone else will develop the large property, which is owned by multiple investors. The southeast portion of the parish is among its fastest growing, and Atwater would have backed up to Nicholson Drive, across from Lexington Estates, University Club and a new development, Woodstock Park, that will be sandwiched between those two.
Nearby, Harveston is under construction and its developer, Mike Wampold, received approval from the Metro Council last week to use Tax Increment Financing to hep finance commercial development there.
“I think the landowners are re-evaluating what they want to do,” Bailey says. “But something will happen there.”
