On the market: Stonetrust Commercial Insurance Co. has put its offices at 5615 Corporate Blvd.—also home to CVS, the National Audubon Society and others—on the market less than four years after acquiring it for $4.6 million. The company is asking around $5.8 million for the 60,000-square-foot class B office building, says Carmen Austin of Saurage Rotenberg, adding the owner spent roughly $1 million on renovations. The eight-story building is located across the street from Chase Suite Hotel. The owners of Stonetrust have decided to sell because they’re spinning of their real estate holdings to focus on their core business of selling workers’ compensation insurance, Austin says.
Down the road: Ochsner Health System is expanding its operations between New Orleans and Baton Rouge with a 20,000-square-foot River Parishes medical complex that opened Tuesday in LaPlace. Spokesman Paul Loisel says the hospital includes a 24/7 emergency department and onsite laboratory, radiology and diagnostic imaging services. Ochsner bills itself as Louisiana’s largest non-profit, academic healthcare system, with 29 hospitals and more than 80 health and urgent care centers. Read more.
Adjusted focus: A group of prominent Democrats, including New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, is organizing outside of the party with the goal of winning elections in Republican-dominated middle America. The Associated Press reports the group—calling themselves New Democracy—plans to push ideas and back candidates in rural areas and suburban enclaves that they believe Democrats too often have abandoned. The group includes sitting and former governors, onetime Cabinet members and members of Congress and statehouses, including Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
