Moving dirt: C.J. Brown Realtors broke ground today on its new Airline Highway office, across from the Long Farm Village Traditional neighborhood development. The planned 7,500-square-foot office building will replace C.J. Brown’s current location at 3920 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd. It will house the company’s title, mortgage and insurance divisions. According to a news release, the move allows the company to be closer to its customer base and aligns with the company’s goal of having a state-of-the-art facility to offer more technologies and services to customers. C.J. Brown has offices on Perkins Road and in Denham Springs. It will open a fourth office in the planned Conway development in Gonzales.
Completed deal: A new firm formed from the former residential division of Donnie Jarreau Real Estate has officially launched today as a franchise of the Berkshire Hathaway Home Service. The new firm will be called Berkshire Hathaway Home Services-United Properties. It is co-owned by Chase Muller and Jonathan Starns and will fly the Berkshire Hathaway Home Services flag. Jarreau broke up his 18-year-old firm, selling the commercial division to NAI/Latter & Blum and the real estate division to Muller and Starns. Jarreau retained the development arm of his business and will continue to work in commercial development under NAI/Latter & Blum. BHHS-United Properties will be located on Wrenwood Boulevard.
Recovery efforts: Shell Oil Co. and the U.S. Coast Guard have finished their “skimming” operation in the Gulf of Mexico cleanup that began with an oil spill last week. The Advertiser reports the oil recovery effort, which involved five vessels and 150 people, ended Monday afternoon, the Coast Guard says. Some 84,000 gallons of an oil-and-water mix was recovered. A discharge of 88,200 gallons of oil occurred Thursday, creating an initial oil sheen of about 2 miles by 13 miles. Shell says one vessel would remain in the area to assess environmental impacts of the discharge, which began late Thursday morning with a broken pipe in the Glider Field, about 97 miles south of the Louisiana coast. How much oil was recovered in the operation was not immediately revealed. Read the full story.
