HARVEY, LA. — Colliers has arranged the sale of The Waters at Manhattan, an apartment community located in Harvey, approximately seven miles outside of downtown New Orleans. Developed in 2022 by the seller, Stoa Group, the property comprises 360 units. New York-based Four Corners Development Group acquired the community for an undisclosed price. Albert Elmore of Colliers led a team that represented both the buyer and seller in the transaction.
METAIRIE, LA. — The Feil Organization has signed a tenant to a 39,000-square-foot lease renewal at One Lakeway, one of the firm’s three office towers within its Lakeway complex in Metairie. EDG, a global engineering and project management consulting firm, signed the 10-year renewal. Bruce Sossaman and Bennett Davis of Corporate Realty represented Feil in the lease negotiations. Scott Miller of CBRE represented EDG.
COVINGTON, LA. — Pelican Energy Consultants LLC, an energy consulting and project management firm, has moved its corporate office to the newly branded Pelican Energy Building, a 48,000-square-foot office building located at 4099 Highway 190 E. Service Road in Covington. Gulf States Real Estate, Development and Construction Services arranged the new office lease on behalf of the tenant and helped negotiate renovations prior to Pelican Energy’s relocation, according to New Orleans City Business. Stephen Camp is the owner/landlord of the Pelican Energy Building. Prior to the new lease, Gulf States also brokered the sale of Pelican Energy’s former 25,000-square-foot office headquarters within the nearby Ashland Business Park. Additionally, the brokerage services firm temporarily housed Pelican Energy within one of its own offices within Tammany West Business Park while renovations were made to its new offices.
METAIRIE, LA. — The Feil Organization has signed FastPass Tag and Title LLC to a 9,000-square-foot lease in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans. The tenant will occupy two suites at 3445 North Causeway Boulevard, a 10-story, 127,858-square-foot office building. One suite will include a retail space where customers can obtain and renew their drivers’ licenses and IDs, while the second space will be dedicated to the company’s back-of-house and office operations. Scott Graf of Corporate Realty represented Feil Organization in the lease transaction.
For the past decade, the inventory of industrial space in the Greater New Orleans market has not been large enough to meet demand. Comprising mostly older product that would be considered Class B or C in more populous markets, New Orleans-area warehouses have an overall vacancy rate of less than 2 percent. The demand has resulted in rising rental rates. Development of new product is warranted, but a combination of factors has prevented new projects from being built. Finally, in 2023, despite increased construction costs, high insurance costs and rising interest rates, projects are underway that will accommodate the demand in a market that is long overdue for new, modern warehouse product. Despite having all the ingredients to be a major industrial market, including one of the country’s largest port systems, warehouse infrastructure in New Orleans is dated, mostly due to a lack of suitable land for development. Institutional ownership and investment here is limited to select groups that, while chasing higher yields, took the time to learn the market’s dynamics and build local relationships. Historically, as brokers and tenants bemoaned a lack of product, national developers were reluctant to deploy capital to speculate in an unfamiliar and unproven locale. …
The New Orleans retail market is in a state of flux like other markets across the country. The retail experience is changing for the end user, with an increase in online shopping, “try before you buy” customers and quicker walkthroughs. Retailers are left in an odd position, caught between experiential interactions with customers and trying to have them remember to purchase later at home. While the retail market is changing, the Greater New Orleans area is different due to the scarcity of space available for new construction and a stable flow of stores closing or relocating. Our market creates a streamlined experience where consumers have “retail corners” they can visit to shop — such as downtown New Orleans, especially the iconic streets of Canal and Magazine — but also the suburbs that include Metairie, Elmwood and the Westbank. With the concentrated shopping setup of the market, customers can shop more efficiently, and retail investors see the New Orleans market as a more demanding and creative place to build and open stores. Submarket by submarket The retail customer in New Orleans detests spending unneeded time in the car, so when customers can shop locally, get what they need and get it …
BOSSIER CITY, LA. — An affiliate of Cordish Cos. doing business as LRGC Gaming Investors LLC has broken ground on Live! Casino & Hotel Louisiana, a $270 million development in Bossier City. The development represents the first land-based casino in the Bossier City-Shreveport metropolitan area, according to Cordish. The project is expected to create 750 new construction jobs and 750 permanent jobs upon completion. The site was formerly home to the vacant Diamond Jacks Casino & Hotel, which Cordish acquired earlier this year. Scheduled to open in 2025, the Live! Casino & Hotel Louisiana will feature more than 47,000 square feet of gaming space; a sportsbook for live betting on sporting events; an upscale 550-room hotel with a resort-style pool and fitness center; 25,000-square-foot events center; structured and surface parking; and 30,000 square feet of dining and entertainment venues, including Cordish brands Sports & Social, PBR Cowboy Bar and Luk Fu.
Shell’s announcement in mid-September to relocate its home from the Central Business District (CBD) of New Orleans to the planned 50-plus acre River District rocked the office market. The oil and gas giant has been in the Hancock Whitney Center (formerly One Shell Square) since 1972, and will be rightsizing in a Class A mid-rise office building that will anchor the River District. The planned building will be approximately 142,000 square feet and home to 850 to 1,000 employees. What a huge win for the planned River District and city of New Orleans. However, the void left in Hancock Whitney Center raises the question, what will building ownership group do with all of the space that Shell vacates? If the current occupancy rate stands, Hancock Whitney Center will have over 500,000 square feet of vacant space. Elsewhere, Entergy is in the process of a major contraction in its building located at 639 Loyola Ave., and earlier this year, Freeport McMoRan vacated over 100,000 square feet of space at 1615 Poydras. Both buildings are also located in the CBD. A number of office towers have loans maturing within the next 24 months, and the logical assumption is that securing financing will …
The volatility in the capital markets over the past 12 to 18 months has wreaked havoc on many aspects of the economy, and real estate has not gone unscathed. Unlike the retail and office sectors whereby there is a fundamental shift in how people work and shop, housing is a basic need. The equilibrium between supply and demand in metro New Orleans’ multifamily market is still in sync. It would however be naïve to suggest there are no challenges that are affecting our real estate market. The “three dreaded Is” (i.e. inflation, interest rates, insurance) is not a Halloween mask but a euphemism that crystallizes the challenges multifamily owners are faced with both locally and nationally. Each of these factors singularly are powerful forces, yet the trifecta is playing a role in the current state of our metro market. However, despite these challenges, the regional multifamily market has stable occupancy with most submarkets reporting levels in the 92 to 94 percent range. Overall monthly rental rates average $1,263 with rents ranging from a low of $1,000 in Eastern New Orleans and Algiers to rents in the Downtown market as high as $3,000. Once again, the barriers to entry (lack of …
LAFAYETTE, LA. — SRS Real Estate Partners has arranged the sale of Karam Shopping Center, a 100,120-square-foot, grocery-anchored shopping center located at 215 W. Willow St. in Lafayette, about 55 miles west of Baton Rouge. Houston-based Mishra Group purchased the shopping center from TCP Realty Services for an undisclosed price. Kyle Stonis and Pierce Mayson of SRS, along with Jonathan Walker of Maestri-Murrell Inc., represented the seller in the transaction. Situated near I-10 and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Karam Shopping Center is anchored by Super 1 Foods and dds Discounts.
