Property: 8888 Airline Highway
Size: ~53,000 SF
Sale Price: $4,500,000
Representation: Seller
Brokers: Justin Langlois & Steve Legendre, Stirling Properties
Challenges:
A 53,000 SF vacant big box is not an easy deal, especially in this market.
When Conn’s shut down, the building went dark and immediately became more of a leasing problem than a sale. The fundamentals were there. Good location, strong visibility, solid construction. But there are only so many users in Baton Rouge who can take down 50,000+ square feet, and most investors are not looking to take on that kind of vacancy.
We had the property under contract early, but the deal fell apart during diligence. At that point, the issue was not just finding a buyer. It was rebuilding confidence in the deal.
Actions:
We shifted the way we positioned the property and widened the buyer pool.
Instead of pushing it strictly as retail, we framed it as a flexible building that could work for a variety of uses. That opened the door to users and investors who were thinking more about function than traditional retail boxes.
We stayed focused on what mattered:
When the first deal fell apart, we stayed in touch with that buyer and kept working through what caused it to break. At the same time, we continued to market the opportunity and keep interest in the deal.
That approach allowed us to bring the original buyer back, work through the issues, and ultimately get the deal across the finish line.
Results:
The property sold for $4,500,000 to a local investor who secured a lease with a new tenant prior to closing on the sale.
The lease provides near-term income while repositioning the property for future long-term use.
The transaction highlights the continued demand for well-located, large-format buildings in the Baton Rouge market and demonstrates how vacant retail properties can be successfully repositioned through strategic marketing and investor targeting.
Testimonial
"It’s hard to find buildings of that quality that you can buy at that price. You certainly can’t build it for that. Given the location, the quality of construction and the size of the building, there just aren’t many like it out there."
- Steve Legendre, Stirling Properties