Nearly two years after Texas rest stop chain Buc-ee’s backed out of much-hyped plans to open its first Louisiana location at The Greens at Millerville, developer Windy Gladney has signed a purchase agreement with a new service retailer for the 15-acre site.
Gladney declines to identify the buyer until after the deal has closed, but says a contract for the property was signed several months ago. He expects the new owners to announce their plans any day now.
In the spring of 2016, Buc-ee’s announced plans for its first Louisiana location at the mixed-development at Interstate 12 and Millerville Road, promising 90 fuel pumps and some 60,000 square feet of retail space. But the company cancelled its plans later that year, saying “the stars did not align” in Louisiana.
In the two years since, Gladney has courted several potential buyers for the site. He expects the current deal to close soon.
In the meantime, The RV Shop is finally moving forward with its plans to build a new sales and service center at the development, two years after it acquired a five-acre parcel.
Plans were completed for the new center earlier this month and will be submitted to the city-parish for approval and also to Gladney, who also must approve them.
The RV Shop owner Gerald Vince says the new building has taken much longer than planned because the original store on Choctaw Drive has been busy, and the original set of plans didn’t fit the property and required revisions.
Also complicating matters is an ongoing negotiation between Vince and Gladney over the purchase of an additional nine acres at the development. The two sides have yet to reach an agreement, but Vince says moving forward with construction of his new store on the land he already owns is not contingent on acquiring the second parcel.
Plans at The Greens at Millerville have changed several times since Gladney began developing it in 2014, after a years-long court battle with his lender.
