An old warehouse on Nicholson Drive near the Mississippi River Bridge soon will be the new home to several tenants with design or artistically related businesses. The 18,000-square-foot building at 1010 Nicholson Drive will be called 1010 Nick and will represent something of a milestone in the redevelopment of the Nicholson corridor between downtown and LSU.
“Obviously, we are going to be one of the first to land there,” says architect Dwayne Carruth, who designed the $1.5 million renovation of the building and will be among its tenants. “We would love for that whole area to become sort of a design district. That whole area is wide open to do something super fantastic and we don’t have anything like that anywhere in Baton Rouge.”
Besides Carruth’s firm, The Front Door, other tenants in 1010 Nick will include Monochrome, a contemporary furniture store; Contemporain, a new art gallery; Denicola’s, a furniture refinishing and upholstery business; Noelie Harmon, an eco-friendly apparel boutique; Jeannie Frey Rhodes Photography; and a new men’s hair salon called Mercer Supply Company. The Front Door, Monochrome and Rhodes’ studio are all currently tenants in the Southdowns Shopping Center on Perkins Road. Southdowns landlord Donnie Jarreau says he has signed letters of intent with new retail tenants to fill the spaces, which will be vacated in June when the Nicholson Drive warehouse is complete.
For tenants relocating to 1010 Nick, the warehouse is attractive for a couple of reasons, says Rhodes, who has been located in Southdowns for several years. Having several creative- or artistic-type businesses under one roof will create a unique synergy. Also, being located on Nicholson Drive adjacent to the planned Water Campus and near other new developments like the IBM complex downtown will be exciting.
“I was ready to make a move and go downtown and be a part of all of this,” says Rhodes, whose space within the warehouse will be 1,400 square feet. “It’s going to be so good-looking and when you look out of the window you see the bridge. It’s beautiful.”
Plans for 1010 Nick have been underway for more than a year. The building, which previously was a warehouse for St. Vincent de Paul, was acquired in January 2014 by the owners of Monochrome, Carol Lacour and Mitchell Naquin, and local investors Shannon and Andrew Smith. Renovations have been under way since last spring.
