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.”
Plans for the development also include office space and 155 acres for residential development. McClure says phase one of the residential portion will include 56 estate lots, 46 single-family lots in the gates, and 14 two-story garden homes.
“We’re trying to create a high-end suburb in Central,” Seguin says. “We want to cater to the Baton Rouge market and give them a place to escape to. … We’ll have a fairground, large pavilion, and then the residential component will be a mixture of high-end housing and high-end garden homes with sort of a St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans style feel.”
The partners have been working on the project since 2006, gradually assembling the parcels of land that will comprise the development. On Monday they acquired a 155-acre site for $1.8 million. An adjoining 285-acre site is under contract and expected to close in June. They already own a 17-acre site.
The PUD is the second recently announced in Central. In late January, Central Mayor Jr. Shelton outlined plans for a 138-acre TND on Sullivan Road called Shoe Creek, a project by the developers of River Ranch. The city’s first TND, The Village at Magnolia Square, has been under development since the mid-2000s.
Seguin said he believes there is sufficient demand in the growing city for all three, though he says his project will be different than the others, with larger lots and upscale retail.
—Stephanie Riegel
