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The Lafourche Parish Council declined a proposed ordinance at its Jan. 13 meeting, which would have allowed the parish’s administration to advertise and solicit bids to purchase a parish-owned tract of land in downtown Thibodaux.
The land, located at 402 West 5th Street, is about 5,000 square feet, and the abandoned parish Agricultural Building sits on the property.
According to Parish President Charlotte Randolph, the land was appraised at $100,000, however many council members feel the land is worth much more.
“$100,000 sounds cheap for that property,” said District 6 Councilman Lindel Toups, returning to the council chamber for the first time in several weeks after undergoing cancer treatment. “I think you take bids on it, and if you don’t like what the bids come out, refuse it. Somebody would pay a lot of money to go ahead and open up a business there, I’d think… If it’s worth $100,000 now, it’s not going to go down. Let’s take a couple of months, shop it around.”
Despite the likelihood that a bid would come in exceeding $100,000 and the fact that the council would still have the opportunity to reject any bid for the property in the future, the council failed to pass the ordinance by a 6-3 vote. Councilmen Aaron Caillouet, Michael Delatte and L. Phillip Gouaux voted in favor of the proposed ordinance.
“Well, let’s let it sit there, and whatever,” a disappointed Randolph said after the vote.
Caillouet believes a private parking lot next door could make the property more enviable.
“That makes it more attractive for a business like a restaurant to come in because if they can negotiate with the owners next door, they can take care of all their parking problems too,” Caillouet said.
District 4 Councilman Joe Fertitta, on the other hand, would like to see the parish tear down the old Agricultural Building and instead provide a public parking lot to downtown Thibodaux. The estimated cost of tearing down the building would also be $100,000, although District 5 councilman John Arnold feels it could be done for about half the cost despite the building being riddled by asbestos.
The same proposed ordinance was deferred from the Oct. 28 meeting on the grounds that the administration would look into Fertitta’s inquiry.
“We took Mr. Fertitta’s advice and took a step back and analyzed it, but in every analysis we did it was going to cost us not only the $100,000 to take the building down, and in no way had more than about 10 parking spaces,” explained Randolph.
Fertitta, however, said 10 additional public parking spaces would mean a lot to downtown Thibodaux.
“We own the property. We always say we we’re not in the business of making money. We’re in the business of giving services, and we could give this service to people,” he said.
Opinions differ on what should be done with the abandoned parish Agricultural Building and the property it sits on in downtown Thibodaux.
