Separate applications for five new apartment complexes that could bring more than 550 more units to the Baton Rouge market were submitted today for consideration at the Jan. 20 city-parish Planning Commission meeting, with 380 of those being proposed in the LSU area. Over 2,700 new apartment units are already scheduled to come onto the market by the end of 2015.
Duplantis Design Group submitted applications for three of the projects. The group is proposing a 204-unit complex on land owned by Dovetail Development on Burbank Drive, between W. Lee Drive and Ben Hur Road. Dovetail also built a nearby complex, The Woodlands, which was completed in 2012 at Nicholson Drive and Ben Hur Road. The new complex will sit on 30 acres that Dovetail purchased for $3.7 million in late October.
Duplantis is also proposing a 179-unit complex on a more than 25-acre tract located south of Burbank Drive that’s owned by Price LeBlanc. The firm also submitted a third application for a 124-unit complex on Jefferson Highway near the Bocage subdivision. It will be located on nearly 4 acres located behind the Panera Bread and Bienville Quarters shopping center. Called Tapestry Park, it will be a single, four-story building developed by Arlington Properties out of Birmingham. John Thompson, who submitted the application with Duplantis, says the complex is “still pretty conceptual at this point,” adding they don’t yet have a price point per square foot.
Aside from the Duplantis projects, John Engquist has plans to develop five luxury condos on a tract of land on Main Street, adjacent to the IBM facility under development downtown. Each will be four stories, with rooftop outdoor kitchens, according to attorney Charles Landry, counsel for the developer. See renderings of the project.
Helena Cunningham with National Housing Consultant Services also submitted an application for a 40-unit complex on a half acre between W. Garfield and W. Roosevelt streets, facing Nicholson Drive. Called Nicholson Place Project, it’s still in its nascent stages, but Cunningham says the complex may have a focus on elderly living, with 20% to 40% of the complex priced at market rate and the remainder being affordable housing. —Kelly Connelly
