A veteran of several apartment renovations is taking on his biggest challenge yet: turning what he calls the worst apartment complex in north Baton Rouge into the best.
David Treppendahl, head of NAI/Latter & Blum’s Multi-Family Division, plans to invest “a lot of money” into Hawthorne Heights Apartments after purchasing the 284-unit complex from Hawthorne Heights Apartments LLC, based out of New Orleans, for $2.9 million in a sale that closed Thursday.
“My objective is to turn it into the nicest apartments in north Baton Rouge,” Treppendahl says of the complex located at 2136 N. Lobdell Blvd., between Greenwell Springs Road and Tom Drive. He eventually plans to rename the complex into Ardendale Oaks Apartments.
The apartments are located across the street from the site where three new education complexes will be built in the 200-acre Ardendale development in the former Smiley Heights neighborhood.
Baton Rouge Community College is building two new facilities—an 86,000-square foot automotive training center and a 20,000-square-foot building that will house both general classrooms and an auto body collision repair training center—and the East Baton Rouge Parish School System is also set to build a Career Academy on the site.
BRCC interim Chancellor Dennis Michaelis says the automotive training center is set to open this fall. There is space for a third BRCC building to go directly north of the automotive training center, but there are no immediate plans or funding for that building.
Gwen Hamilton, interim president and CEO of the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority, which is spearheading the Ardendale development, says she had hoped developing the long-vacant site for Ardendale would spur growth in the surrounding areas.
“And that’s exactly what is happening with that developer,” Hamilton says.
Treppendahl says there are very few quality, market-rate apartments in north Baton Rouge, and he hopes to make his new investment the crown jewel of them all.
“This is essentially like putting a new apartment complex in north Baton Rouge that is unrestricted,” Treppendahl says. Because the developer is not using U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funding or any other federal dollars to build the apartments, he can charge market price.
Treppendahl says the complex will have to undergo extensive renovations from the parking lot to the roof of each building. In nearly every apartment, workers will replace the window A/C units, add new windows, replace the plumbing and light fixtures, add washer and dryer connections to the two-bedroom units, and swap out appliances as needed.
Each building will get a new roof, and Treppendahl will spend about $500,000 alone on renovating the parking lot and alleviating drainage issues. Workers will also add a common area for students to study, a playground and pet park.
The complex is about 30% occupied right now—80 out of 284 units—and all tenants are all on month-to-month payment plans. Treppendahl says everyone is welcome to stay, and he will not raise the rent for the first year. After that, he will not raise their rent more than $50 per month for a whole year.
Workers will renovate the front portion of the complex first—adding a new leasing office—before moving to the rest of the complex. Treppendahl says he hopes to begin renting out the first units to new tenants after about nine months.
—Ryan Broussard
