Moreno Studying Options for 27-Acre Assembly

BATON ROUGE, LA-A land assembly begun nearly two years ago in the Nicholson Corridor is nearing completion, with the Lafayette, LA-based developer paying $14 million for nearly 27 acres. Moreno Properties is considering various commercial uses for the land, which was a single-family neighborhood.

“Right now, there’s no definite timeline as to when they’ll build,” says David Trusty, director of commercial real estate for Gully, Phelps McKey Real Estate of Baton Rouge. “They’ve closed on all the houses, but they’re meeting with planning and zoning and others before deciding on what to do.” He tells GlobeSt.com that the developers have retained Steve Oubre, a Lafayette architect who is known for his New Urbanism projects.

Trusty, who began working with homeowners to assemble the real estate in early summer 2006, says he sought a good match between a developer and the Nicholson Corridor residents. “It took a couple of years to find that perfect match, but we did. The group out of Lafayette has a great vision and they agreed that the corridor was important,” Trusty says.