Louisiana based operators JRE Capital and Ratcliff Development are pursuing a transformative commercial development of 186 acres located in Geismar, Louisiana, in the heart of what’s known as the state’s “Chemical Corridor.” The site will serve as an industrial/logistics park in Ascension Parish, an area anchored by strong demand for light industrial, distribution, and manufacturing uses.
The partnership intends to improve existing farmland with horizontal infrastructure including roads, utilities, drainage, etc. to make 14 individual lots, between 2 and 16 acres apiece, shovel-ready for ground-up construction. The lots will subsequently be sold to developers and/or industrial end users.
Positioned between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Ascension Parish benefits from its proximity to both cities, serving as an intermediate point of transit, as well as a point of accessibility to various parts of the state via highways, railways, and ports.
The attractiveness of the opportunity was driven both by the size and uniqueness of the site and continued growth of the local petrochemical industry. JRE Managing Partner, Trey Williams commented, “The overwhelming majority of un-developed land in this market is wetlands or in a flood plain. This site represents one of the last un-developed tracts in a corridor starved for new supply, as is witnessed by the forward pipeline of plant expansions and development.”
Remarkably, there has been over $30 billion in industrial projects announced or proposed over the next several years in Ascension Parish alone, helping explain the 20% increase in the labor force 2012-2022 (versus 7% in the Baton Rouge MSA), and almost 5,000 permanent jobs expected to be created in the future.
The area will also benefit from a recent $160 million state grant awarded to the National Science Foundation (it’s largest grant nationally to date) for decarbonization of Louisiana’s industrial corridors. As Ascension Parish is “ground zero” for carbon capture activity and the most desirable subsurface storage capacity in the state, it is expected to be a critical location for such efforts.
This deal represents a continuation of the partnership’s focus on industrial development in the state. JRE Capital has owned, developed, and managed over 3 million SF of retail, multifamily and industrial real estate over the last two decades. Ratcliff Development, led by Gregg Thompson, CCIM, as President of the company, has successfully developed over $600 million in commercial real estate projects throughout the Gulf South states, New Mexico, and Minnesota. The partnership has witnessed the strong demand for industrial products in several Louisiana markets firsthand and knows the attractiveness of this location is unprecedented. It will play an important role in the continued development of the “Chemical Corridor.”
Contact [email protected] for more information on the Magnolia Ridge project.