Strong growth predicted for south Airline Highway

Fire Chief Gerard Tarleton of the St. George Fire Protection District says he has all the evidence he needs to justifiably call the stretch of Airline Highway between the new Woman’s Hospital and Highland Road Baton Rouge’s new “Gold Coast.” In recent months, two tracts of land near Pecue Lane were sold for $25 per square foot; one went to IberiaBank and the other to CVS. Compare that price to the $5 per square foot that St. George Fire Protection District paid just three years ago for 10 acres off Airline—across the highway from its business office at 14141 Airline Hwy.—and you can see where Tarleton is coming from. “Our property’s not on the new corner of Pecue, but it just goes to show you what people are willing to pay,” he says. In fact, the St. George property is less than two miles south of the Pecue Lane extension. Tarleton says he believes much of the land south of the St. George tract will soon be purchased for development. The growth, he says, will largely be driven by the new Woman’s Hospital on Airline Highway and by L’Auberge Casino & Hotel on River Road at Gardere Lane, which opens Wednesday. “They will cause development in this area,” Tarleton says, adding that it’s happening already: Trucks hauling lumber and concrete are noticeably back on the highway again after being conspicuously absent the past few years. And all that growth is good for St. George, Tarleton says, because new property tax is revenue for the fire protection district. —Adam Pearson