Vertical construction is finally under way at developer Mike Wampold’s newest development—a luxury, multifamily complex at 900 Stanford Ave. called Bayonne at Southshore.
Infrastructure work at the 5.5-acre site began more than one year ago, but it has taken longer than anticipated to get the 240-unit complex out of the ground largely because the project is more costly than originally anticipated.
Wampold estimates the final price tag will be some 15% higher than the originally projected $42 million.
Bayonne at Southshore is being developed on the site of the former One Lakeshore Place Apartments, which Wampold bought in 1985 and demolished in the fall of 2014 to make way for the new complex. It is adjacent to his luxury condominium development, Crescent at University Lake, and is just across the street from BREC’s Milford Wampold Memorial Park
The new complex will be a four-floor gated community with one- two- and three-bedroom units, garage parking, a resort-style pool and clubhouse, and fitness and business centers. It’s expected to be completed next summer.
Baton Rouge has seen an explosion of new multifamily developments in recent years, particularly around the high-demand LSU area. Nearly 4,700 new units were completed in 2015 or are currently under construction and scheduled for completion this year. Most of those units are student housing, however, a sector against which Bayonne will not be competing, Wampold says.
“This is high end, not student housing,” he says. “We’re going to be serving a market that is upper end and that market is still underserved. At the Crescent we get calls weekly for rentals but we don’t rent those units so we believe there is demand.”
Leasing for units at Bayonne will begin late this year.
—Stephanie Riegel
