Building may become dental clinic: The empty Blockbuster Video store at Government Street and Acadian Thruway has been sold to a group of Metairie investors. Highway 23 paid $692,000 for the 6,000-square-foot building. Austin Earhart, an agent with Beau Box Commercial Real Estate who had the listing for the store, says Highway 23 is “working on a couple of different deals.” One possibility is leasing the building to a single tenant, a national dentistry group. If that deal doesn’t work out, the building will be subdivided and leased out in smaller chunks.
Celtic plans to buy old Red Cross building: The Celtic Media Centre is set to buy the former American Red Cross building across the street from its film studio complex. Bob Bayham, executive vice president and CFO for Celtic, says the deal should close at the end of the month. Bayham wouldn’t disclose a sale price for the 17,000-square-foot building, citing confidentiality agreements. Plans are to use the building as production offices for tenants who are shooting movies or TV shows in town.
State home prices up a little, but still down overall: Home prices in Baton Rouge were down 1.6% in May compared to a year earlier, a significantly smaller drop than the national average. According to First American CoreLogic, national housing prices were down an average of 9.2% compared to May 2008. First American notes that the year-over-year decline of home prices peaked at 11.9% in January and has improved every month since. Louisiana home prices increased slightly in May, going up 0.65%.
