A group of New Orleans investors has acquired the Sherwood Oaks Office Park at 4354 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd. for an undisclosed price from the Atlanta-based investment group that has owned it since 2013. New Orleans couple Amanda and Justin Seale—who are the daughter and son-in-law of Latter & Blum Chairman and CEO Robert Merrick—acquired the property March 31 from Songy HighRoads, which is owned by real estate developer David Songy of Atlanta.
Sherwood Oaks is a four-building complex with more than 101,000 square feet of space on 7.3 acres near the intersection of South Sherwood Forest and Coursey boulevards. The property is 35 years old with an average occupancy of about 83%, and it is one of seven buildings that Songy HighRoads acquired in a portfolio for $52.7 million from developer Tommy Spinosa.
Amanda Seale says she and her husband were interested in the office park because of the strength of the Baton Rouge office market, which they know well. Her family already owns several buildings in the area, including the 78,000-square-foot office building at 4000 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd., which was acquired earlier this year for $8.15 million by an investor group led by her father. Merrick also owns the C.J. Brown Building at 3029 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd., which he acquired in 2013.
“We’re happy to be involved in office space in Baton Rouge,” Seale says. “We’re very positive on it.”
The Seales plan to continue renovations to the office park that began under Songy HighRoads and hope to increase occupancy.
Sherwood Forest Office Park isn’t the first of the original Spinosa properties that Songy HighRoads has sold since acquiring the portfolio. In early 2014, Songy sold the Corporate II building at 5615 Corporate Blvd. for $4.6 million, or about or $81 per square foot. If Sherwood Forest Office Park sold for a comparable rate, the sale price would be would somewhere around $8.1 million.
Local real estate appraiser Wesley Moore says that’s a fair assumption, though he believes the price could have been slightly higher because Sherwood Forest Office Park was in better condition when sold than Corporate II when it was sold last year.
“The location of the Corporate II building is better, but the Sherwood Forest building is in much better condition,” he says. “Still, if it sold for more than $9 million for it, I would be surprised.”
—Stephanie Riegel
