Among the more than 36,000 attendees last week at the International Council of Shopping Center’s annual convention, RECon, were several local real estate brokers and developers, who made the trek to the Las Vegas trade show to rub elbows with fellow industry professionals and try to ink new deals for Baton Rouge.
Their takeaway?
“All asset types are hot right now but especially the QSRs (quick service restaurants) and fast-casual chains,” says Jonathan Walker with Maestri Murrell Commercial Real Estate. “I definitely think we’ll see more QSRs in Baton Rouge.”
Examples of quick service restaurants are Papa Murphy’s, Raising Cane’s and Chick-fil-A.
Walker and others say overall the national industry outlook is cautiously optimistic, despite an ongoing slump in big-box retail sales. But investors, developers and retail chains are extremely positive about the Baton Rouge market, which has consistently outperformed national averages over the past several years.
“Everybody is bullish on Baton Rouge,” says Mark Hebert of Kurz & Hebert Commercial Real Estate. “Everybody wanted to talk about Baton Rouge for restaurants and service-type uses.”
Hebert is working with one restaurant chain that wants to open between 15 and 20 family-style restaurants between Lafayette and New Orleans. Another deal he worked at the trade show involved an auto service dealer interested in opening new locations in Baton Rouge.
“When you start seeing Kmart and Walmart closing stores around the country, that is generally not a good sign,” Hebert says. “But I think there is enough other stuff going on in the restaurant and service sectors that it is going to pick up the slack.”
Because of the demand for fast-casual restaurants and the slowdown in big-box retail sales, Walker says to expect big-box retailers to start carving outparcels from their parking lots for restaurant development.
“Any big-box retailer that has had a huge parking requirement is taking a step back now and realizing there are other uses for that land,” he says.
Another takeaway from RECon: Mixed-use developments are hot, though there are fewer mega projects in the works as there were a few years ago.
“I think there are fewer large scale projects on the drawing board then there once were,” says Charlie Colvin with Beau Box Commercial Real Estate. “Our sense is a lot of the development will be smaller.”
—Stephanie Riegel
