Britton Koontz buys site for second Bluebonnet location

Britton & Koontz has bought a 4,000-square-foot office near Jefferson Highway and Bluebonnet Boulevard and plans to open its second Baton Rouge branch there within the next two months. The Natchez, Miss.-based bank paid $705,000 for the building in a deal that closed last week. W. Page Ogden, president and CEO for B&K, says the new location in the Oaks at Bluebonnet Office Parc will be more for mortgage lending and private banking than a true retail location. Ogden says B&K was running out of space at its current Bluebonnet location past Perkins Road. “This will give us space to have board meetings in Baton Rouge,” Ogden says. The new location gives B&K two spots on Bluebonnet, but Ogden says the properties are far enough away from each other, that they won’t cannibalize business. For one, they’re on opposite sides of Interstate 10. “We can only have limited locations in Baton Rouge, so we want to be close to the interstate,” he says. Plans are to open the new branch with five employees, some who are coming from B&K’s existing spot, then to eventually boost the employment up to 12.—Timothy Boone