Letter of intent inked for grocery at Acadian Village

A long-awaited grocery store planned for the Acadian Village development at Perkins Road and Acadian Thruway appears one step closer to reality. That’s according to real estate broker Jonathan Walker, who says a letter of intent has been signed between Commercial Properties Realty Trust—which owns and is developing the former Wal-Mart site—and a specialty grocery store chain. Walker declines to identify the chain, as does Commercial Properties, but he says he expects a lease to be signed within 30 days and that the chain plans to open a 15,000-square foot outlet—its first in Louisiana—on the site. That would be considerably smaller than the big-box store once envisioned for the site. But Walker says a smaller, specialty store will enable the developers to keep the mixed-use project more upscale. “I think they wanted to keep the grocery store high-end rather than bringing in some discount chain,” he says. “‘Upscale’ is probably the key word.” This isn’t the first time talk of a grocery store at that location has grabbed headlines. Nearly four years ago, the state bond commission approved $4 million in GO Zone funding for Robert Fresh Market, an upscale New Orleans grocery store, to open at that location. Those plans never materialized, and rumors of another grocery store at the site have surfaced from time to time ever since. —Stephanie Riegel