Ethan Allen move just one example of Baton Rouge’s changing commercial corridors

Customers looking for bargains are packing the Ethan Allen store on Florida Boulevard near Airline Highway this week, as it is offering deeply discounted prices on its high-end furniture in preparation for its move early next year to a new location. The store, which has occupied the same site for more than 30 years, is moving to a newly renovated building it purchased earlier this year on Perkins Road at Bluebonnet, across from Perkins Rowe. The owners say the long-established business has had continually strong sales. The move across town says a lot about the shifting demographics in Baton Rouge and where retailers perceive the action to be. “You want to be located where your customers shop,” says realtor Chad Ortte, adding that Ethan Allen owner Todd Grand spent three years scouting for a new south Baton Rouge location before settling on the strip center he has since purchased and is renovating. “You’re going to see a lot more shifts from the Florida/Airline area to Perkins/Bluebonnet/Siegen.” Grand settled on the existing strip center for his new store, which previously housed Young Fashions, because he couldn’t find a suitable tract of undeveloped land in the area. “Renovations are always harder than building from the ground up,” Ortte says. “But we were trying to find good dirt in that area and it just wasn’t there.” Ortte predicts the old Ethan Allen store will—like many vacant properties and former stores in the Florida/Airline area—eventually be redeveloped for uses other than retail, such as a church or charter school. “We have seen some interest from churches and schools,” he says, adding no deals or offers have been made. —Stephanie Riegel