In the relatively soft downtown office market, it’s always heralded when a new tenant has a ribbon cutting to showcase its new office space.
At the Tuesday ribbon cutting marking the grand opening of Cambria Solution’s 2,500-square-foot offices in One American Place, there was an added reason to celebrate: After being in the local market just three months, the company is already planning to expand its presence in Baton Rouge, where it will lease an additional 3,500 square feet in the 24-story high rise and double its number of local employees to 54.
“Baton Rouge is a corporate office for us,” says Cambria’s Yvonne Holloway. “This isn’t just a project office.”
Cambria Solutions is a 16-year-old Sacramento, California-based company that provides IT and management consulting services to businesses and governments. It moved into the Baton Rouge market in July, after inking a deal with the Louisiana Department of Health to provide project management services related to improving and integrating Medicaid technology systems and business processes.
The duration of the contract is for three years and is worth more than $23 million, according to LDH officials.
For the downtown office market, which has softened over the past couple of years amidst decreased demand and an increased supply of new buildings and suburban office parks, Cambria’s growing presence represents a bright spot.
The company is absorbing 6,000 square feet, or roughly 20% of the available space in the 333,000-square-foot One American Place, which, in May, had an occupancy rate of just below 90%, with lease rates averaging $21 per square foot, according to 2019 Real Estate TRENDS report. Cambria’s presence will increase the building’s occupancy rate to nearly 93%.
Holloway says the company wanted to be located downtown in general and in One American Place specifically because of its proximity to LDH offices, which are located across the street from the state-owned Bienville building, where Cambria is doing most of its work.
(Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include the terms of Cambria’s contract with LDH.)
