Building new office in Bon Carré: Affirmative Insurance Holdings says it will consolidate its retail agency operations in the Bon Carré Business Center, a move that will add 56 jobs over the next nine months and retain about 200 more. Affirmative, which bought USAgencies for $200 million in a deal that closed in February 2007, has applied for a permit to build a 52,000-square-foot office in Bon Carré.
Art gallery, police substation coming to Third Street: The State Office of Facilities Corporation has agreed to lease 2,000 square feet of vacant space in the Third Street Parking Garage to the City-Parish for a new City Police substation and a proposed art gallery. Under the agreement, the City-Parish will spend $300,000 to cover the costs of finishing off the police substation and the art gallery in exchange for a 10-year, no-cost lease for the space. The city-parish will use 705 square feet for the substation. The remaining 1,295 square feet will be used for an art gallery proposed by the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge.
Market outperform: A new report says Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles and Monroe are four of the U.S. real estate markets expected to perform the best in the upcoming year. Local Market Monitor, which produces the Home Price Forecast for more than 300 cities, says home values should remain level in those cities over the next 12 months. Officials with Local Market say home prices in those cities are lower than the national average, and the effects of the recession have been slight. Baton Rouge, in particular, has continued to add jobs.
