Level Construction has acquired the Baton Rouge Area Foundation’s former headquarters building at 402 N. Fourth St. and will relocate its growing residential construction company to the building at the end of this month.
Meanwhile, Commercial Properties Realty Trust—BRAF’s for-profit real estate development company—has purchased Level’s offices at 450-460 Main St. and plans to lease the property to a new tenant.
“We got a nice building in a great location, and CPRT will buy the old building,” says John Engquist, who owns Level Construction. “It worked out well for everybody.”
In a deal that closed Sept. 16, 402 Laurel LLC, which is owned by Engquist, acquired the 19,376-square-foot BRAF building for $3.6 million, or about $185 per square foot. BRAF, which relocated from the nine-year-old building early this year to the new IBM office tower on Lafayette Street, originally listed the building for sale in July 2015 at $4.08 million.
Engquist says Level, which has 35 employees, was running out of space in its existing offices on Main Street. Though the company doesn’t need all the available space in its new, three-story building, Engquist believes the firm will eventually grow into it. In the meantime, Level will lease the first floor to a still-undisclosed tenant and occupy the second and third floors.
As for Commercial Properties, it paid $1.6 million for Level’s 8,000-square-foot space, which comprises two buildings that were combined two years ago, when Level acquired the space at 460 Main St. The firm has owned the adjacent space at 450 Main St. since 2007.
CPRT spokeswoman Tina Rance says CPRT “will be looking for a new tenant” for the Main Street space.
—Stephanie Riegel
