Heading into 2020, Baton Rouge’s retail sector looked promising, with vacancy rates slightly down over 2019, rental rates significantly up and most experts predicting a strong, though not necessarily banner, year.
When the coronavirus pandemic forced the shutdown of the economy for eight weeks in mid-spring, however, the retail sector—including bars, restaurants, and gyms—were among the hardest hit. How they will recover in the months to come and what it means for their landlords is, at this point, anyone’s guess.
“I hope I wake up next year at this time and it’s all just a bad memory,” says Mark Hebert of Kurz and Hebert Commercial Real Estate. “Let’s just pray by next year it’s all a bad memory.”
Depending on whose predictions you believe and what network news you watch, the downturn and the pandemic might be over by then.
But there are plenty of reasons to think it might not be.
In the meantime, landlords are trying to figure out what to do with tenants that are bringing in just a fraction of the business they were last year at this time, if they’ve reopened at all.
Read the full story about the local retail real estate sector from the latest edition of Business Report.
