N.O. Mexican restaurant working on property deal to open B.R. location

The Velvet Cactus of New Orleans’ Lakeview area has had to navigate a rough patch of real estate negotiations as it attempts to build a restaurant in Baton Rouge. A servitude agreement that cell phone tower company Crown Castle has had with the owners of the former Chalet Brandt restaurant building at 7655 Old Hammond Highway has been the sticking point since developers announced in early August their plans to build a high-end Mexican restaurant on the site, says an agent representing the sale. But after nearly dying in November, an agreement has been reshaped over the past few weeks and could be forged before the end of the year. “We have somehow kept this thing alive,” says Mark Hebert of Kurz & Hebert Commercial Real Estate. The Velvet Cactus owners and operators Herb Dyer and Rusty White—who also own and operate The Bulldog bars on Perkins Road and in New Orleans—had signed a $900,000 purchase agreement to tear down the building on-site and build a new one measuring up to 4,500 square feet, including a patio. But Crown Castle leveraged its servitude agreement to delay a closing on the deal, says Hebert, without going into specifics. However, the real estate agent is now confident Crown Castle is at ease about tower access; and the site, which also housed Another Broken Egg Café and Mandina’s restaurants, will be home to The Velvet Cactus in 2013. “We won’t ever have to deal with this again,” Hebert says. —Adam Pearson