Two months after the historic flood of 2016 devastated much of Central, city leaders and developers from Lafayette-based Southern Lifestyles Development this morning are celebrating the groundbreaking of the Settlement at Shoe Creek, a 150-acre traditional neighborhood development on Sullivan Road that will bring 125,000 square feet of commercial space, 457 single-family homes and 250 multifamily units to the area.
“We’re really excited about this,” says Central Mayor Jr. Shelton. “A few days after the flood we were all kind of hanging our heads and then we realized we have some exciting things getting ready to happen. This is a great project and it’s in a great location, exactly where it needs to be.”
At today’s groundbreaking developers are announcing the commercial tenants they’ve secured for the TND. They include Lafayette-based pizzeria Romacelli Bistro, a CC’s Coffee House and a Lafayette-based wine bar, Pour. C.J. Brown will open a real estate office in the development, which will also be home to a PCP Group urgent care clinic, a Sport Clips salon, a UPS store and a 5,000-square foot gym called Shoe Creek Athletic Club.
Though the August flood delayed the start of the project, Southern Lifestyle Development’s area president Prescott Bailey says his firm never had second thoughts about developing in the Central market.
“We feel very good about Central,” Bailey says. “It has close to 30,000 people, a great school system and a commercial district that was mostly unharmed by the flood. We don’t anticipate people leaving Central. The community is very resilient.”
The first phase of the Settlement at Shoe Creek is being built along Sullivan Road, north of Wax Road, and will include 210 multifamily units in one apartment complex, 100 assisted living units, 115 single-family homes and 28,000 square feet of commercial space. Construction on the first phase is expected to take about a year.
Bailey says the rest of the development will be built in four or five phases and could take as long as eight years to be fully built out.
Southern Lifestyle Development began acquiring the property for the TND several years ago in multiple deals that totaled some $4.2 million. The company was the driving force behind the Village of River Ranch TND in Lafayette and has about 30 communities in various stages of development.
Maestri-Murrell is listing the commercial space for the development.
—Stephanie Riegel
