Hub International moving into, renaming former IBM building

Hub International Limited, an insurance brokerage firm with offices in Baton Rouge and Metairie, has signed a seven-year lease to occupy about 16,000 square feet of office space on the third floor of a building at 11100 Mead Road that was once occupied by IBM. The property—just off Interstate 12 at the South Sherwood Forest Boulevard exit—has long been known simply as the IBM building. Hub International is hoping to give it a new identity and has acquired naming rights as part of the lease, says Austin Earhart of Beau Box Commercial Real Estate, who represented the firm in the deal. “They’ll probably be putting up a pretty large sign when they make the move,” he says. Hub International will vacate two nearby offices on Southfork Avenue, which total about 9,000 square feet, Earhart says, and will likely be moved into its new offices by the summer. “They’ve been growing at a pretty steady pace, and they need more room,” he says. “They hired me about six months ago to find something, and this was just a deal that made a lot of sense because it was so close to their existing offices and it was a very fair deal with a competitive lease rate.” Jonathan Walker of Maestri-Murrell Real Estate represented the landlord, GLD II Investments LLC. —Steve Sanoski