baton rouge 2009

Baton Rouge, the Capital of Louisiana, has withstood the economic slowdown of 2008-09 relatively well. Weekly wages increased from 2008, the Brooking Institution ranked Baton Rouge the 6th best performing metro area second quarter of 2009, and Forbes ranked BR as the 7th best mid-sized city for job growth. Also, GDP for Baton Rouge increased 1.1% in 2008 to $27.7 Billion outpacing US GDP.

BR has remained well insulated due to several economic catalysts. Louisiana State University, with an enrollment of 35,000 calls BR home along with several other universities and colleges. The inmost port on the MS River is located in BR generating a strong barge and shipping base for industrial growth. Other economic generators are that BR is the state capital as well as having the I-10 and I-12 corridor running through the city. This provides a big boost to our hospitality sector. Medical is another large employer with 5 major hospitals in the city.

Although rental rates and occupancies have been holding strong across the board BR is finally seeing some inventory coming on line. Office vacancies for Class A space slipped to 9% city wide excluding the additional sub lease space that could top 100,000 sq ft or an additional 2% vacancy by year end.

Retail occupancies slipped as well in 2009. Overall city vacancies were 12.4% up 1% from a year earlier. Total inventory of non-lifestyle center space is around 7MM sq ft while regional malls and lifestyle centers consist of around 1MM sq ft. Approximately 1.5MM sq ft of planned retail developments never broke ground in 2009.

The strongest sector this year has been multi-family with a near 95% occupancy rate city wide. In addition, the highest price per door was paid for an apartment complex in the sale of the 300 unit Millennium, which topped $140,000 per door.