Aside from the high drama at the Capitol this week as lawmakers continue to work to fill an estimated $1.6 billion budget hole for the coming fiscal year, a number of large developments were announced this week in Baton Rouge.
Among them, Birmingham, Alabama-based Capstone Collegiate Companies is planning to develop a 179-unit student housing complex on Ben Hur Road following the company’s purchase of about 20 acres for $7,028,000. Arlington Townhomes and Manors would be located just down the road from The Cottages, a 382-unit, 1,290-bed student housing complex at the corner of Ben Hur and Nicholson Drive that Capstone also developed.
“It will have some similarities to The Cottages,” says principal Rob Howland, who noted that Capstone sold The Cottages about a month after that complex was completed in August 2011. “We’re looking to have this development ready for August of 2016.”
Also, after nearly a decade of planning, developers in Central are moving forward with plans for a planned unit development that will be located on a 457-acre site that fronts on Wax Road.
As envisioned, the still-unnamed PUD will include a 70-acre lifestyle center with high-end retailers, a gourmet grocery store and—it is hoped—a YMCA branch, according to Blake Seguin, who is developing the project with partners Ryan Jumonville and Todd McClure.
“We’re in talks with high-end gourmet supermarkets and hope to have a deal inked with YMCA in a couple of weeks,” Seguin says. “It’s going to be like a Town Centre but without the big box stores, only boutiques.”
Meanwhile, a Mississippi-based company has plans for an upscale senior living development on 8.5 acres within The Grove, Richard Carmouche’s planned unit development located just off Interstate 10 behind theMall of Louisiana.
The Blake at The Grove, as the development will be called, will consist of 213 units of independent living, assisted living and memory care. It also will include a community center, pool and fitness center, and maintenance building with associated parking. Cardinal Ventures of Richland is developing the project and filed a final development plan this week with the Planning Commission.
