New Orleans-based Robért Fresh Market is taking over the leases of a pair of Matherne’s Supermarkets in Baton Rouge and will rebrand the Highland Road and Bluebonnet Boulevard grocery stores in the coming months, a company official says.
Marcelle Connick, marketing coordinator for Robért Fresh Market, confirmed the moves today, saying the New Orleans grocer anticipates closing on the store at 7355 Highland in February and the store at 7580 Bluebonnet in April.
She stresses they are not buying the Matherne’s franchise, just taking over the leases of the two stores. Attempts to reach members of the Matherne family were unsuccessful as of this afternoon’s deadline.
“After many years of surveying the Baton Rouge market, we are very excited to announce our entrance this spring,” Marc L. Robért II, president and manager of Robert Resources, says in a prepared statement.
Once the deals are completed, designers and architects will go into both stores to begin planning renovations and makeovers. Connick says both stores have different layouts, so that will be changed, as will the décor inside the building.
“They’re at different life stages,” Connick says of the buildings.
The stores will remain open during the renovations. As of now, there are no plans for further expansion in Baton Rouge, but Connick says that could change. She declined to say how long Robért Fresh Market has been in negotiations to take over the leases.
Robért Fresh Market began in 1994 with its first neighborhood market located at West Esplanade Avenue and Transcontinental Drive in New Orleans. The company also announced in the same news release that it is has selected a contractor to begin on the new store at the corner of St. Claude and Elysian Fields avenues in New Orleans.
This is not the New Orleans company’s first foray into Baton Rouge. More than seven years ago, the state Bond Commission approved $4 million in GO Zone funding for the company to open at what is now Trader Joe’s, but the plans never materialized.
With the loss of the two stores, Matherne’s will have just one left in Baton Rouge, the store it opened on Third Street in downtown last year. It also has stores in LaPlace and Paulina.
—Ryan Broussard
