Swap Boutique has opened its doors at its new location in the Bocage Village Shopping Center, moving into the space occupied for the past 30 years by Classic Jewelers.
Boutique owner Michelle Reinhardt says she signed a five-year lease for the spot, where her team moved Sunday and opened for business Monday. She started her business in New Orleans 10 years ago and entered the Baton Rouge market five years later, operating from a shop on Perkins Road near the overpass.
Reinhardt’s lease on Perkins was up, and the Bocage Village space became available in July after Classic Jewelers permanently closed. While several Perkins Road overpass businesses are bracing for the impact of the I-10 widening project, Reinhardt says the infrastructure project had nothing to do with her decision to relocate to the Jefferson Highway shopping center.
“A lot of our consignors and customers live in this area,” she says, noting another boutique will move into her former location. “We’ve already had so many new customers pop in that hadn’t had the chance to come to our old location.”
The 1,600-square-foot space features essentially the same layout as the Perkins store, Reinhardt says, also carrying high-end designer brands and contemporary labels.
The designer consignment store is the latest tenant to move into the shopping center, which had been struggling after Dearman’s, one of its most popular restaurants, closed for almost two years.
In addition to Classic Jewelers and Dearman’s, Bocage Village lost several other tenants in 2017. However, over the past few months, the shopping center has replaced vacancies with new tenants, including a Big Squeezy and children’s boutique Oh Baby!. Also, Dearman’s reopened.
Swap Boutique is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. and on Sundays from noon until 5 p.m.
