October 22
October 22, 2007
Richard Weaver
October 24, 2007
Once living quarters and a barbershop, The Cherry Building in Thibodaux has been revived.
Longtime businessman Sam Cherry owned and operated his shoe-repair shop for nearly 70 years in a small house in front of the building, which was built in 1952.
Cherry converted the top half of the 3,900-square-foot, two-story building into living quarters for tenants and his family. Downstairs, the right side facing Jackson Street was a barbershop; the other was for Cherry’s shoe-repair, but the business never made the repair.
After the barbershop closed, the Cherry Building remained vacant. About six years ago, the building was put on the market for sale.
Attorney Woody Falgoust jumped at the opportunity. His law office is located right next door to the property.
“I thought about renovating my office and using the attic as extra office space when I saw that I was pretty much maxed out for space,” he said.
That same day, he remembers looking out of the attic window at the property adjacent to his office.
“I noticed that the property had been vacant for some years,” he said. “So I decided to call the number and check it out. I wanted to see if the building came with the property, and if so what was the buying cost.”
For $125,000, Falgoust and his wife Susie became the new owners.
Initially, the couple intended to hold on to the property for future law office space.
“It was cheaper to purchase the building and sit on it for a while than to build additional office space,” he said. “Building a brick building like this today isn’t cheap at all.”
Today, the upstairs includes office suites, which opened in July. The Falgousts leased the spaces to Summit Productions, Piccola Land Company, Inc., Flagstar Bank and Donna B. Wilson’s Massage Therapy Clinic. All the businesses have one-year leases.
“Office suites are complex for businesspeople who want to open a new business or a branch of a business,” Falgoust said. “We have everything they would need for their business at a controlled cost.”
Falgoust was in a similar situation almost 10 years ago when he was starting out as a lawyer. He wanted to break out on his own, but he needed substantial space and he didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for it.
“Back in 1997, I wanted to have my own law office,” he said. “All I needed was an office and access to a conference room and a copier. I couldn’t find anything I liked until I ran across someone leasing executive office suites in New Orleans.”
Falgoust said he had never heard of the concept of executive office suites, where you lease out rooms in a building to potential business owners.
“I don’t think I would have ever made it on my own if I hadn’t got the opportunity to lease the office space in New Orleans,” he said.
Falgoust said the entrepreneur’s market is high. He said in today’s society, people want to work for themselves.
“There are a lot of people who want to start their own business, but they don’t want to hop into the unknown (executive office space),” he said. “And, we want to make the unknown a reality for them. They can have their own office and keep their expenses down.”
Andre Badeaux of Summit Productions specializes in professional video services. He does video for weddings, parties and commercials. Prior to occupying one of the executive suites, Badeaux worked from home.
The up-and-coming businessman said, “With a wife and kids running around, sometimes you cannot get a lot done. I needed the space to separate my work life from my personal life.”
Houma-based Flagstar Bank Branch Manager Tim Blanchard also has an office space in the Cherry Building. “We have a good situation,” he said. “The building itself has been a landmark building for years. And it has brought curiosity to the neighborhood as to what’s going to happen with it.”
“It a win-win situation for us,” he said. “We all needed a spot, and we ‘ve got the spot that’s in a centralized location with parking in downtown.”
Blanchard said the Cherry Building is in a high-exposed area, being in the middle of downtown Thibodaux.
Flagstar Bank, a nationwide lender and family chartered bank, actually opened five years ago in Houma. Over the years, it has had some name changes, but the concept has stayed the same, according to Blanchard.
Blanchard does a lot of business in Lafourche Parish. The main office in Houma does a lot of business in Terrebonne Parish. Flagstar is the 14th largest mortgage lender in the nation and Terrebonne and Lafourche have the only offices in Louisiana.
Robert Piccola of Piccola Land Company, Inc., works with a Larose-based, residential raw-land developer. He said he lives in Thibodaux, so having an office space there was more convenient. Piccola found out about the office space availability through his Rotary group.
“Leasing in Thiboduax is cheaper than driving to Larose every day,” he said. “I still have access to meeting rooms and other things just like I would in Larose.”
Piccola does most of his work in Ascension, Tangipahoa and Lafourche parishes.
“We have been broadening over horizons, and the office space is a centralized location for me,” he said.
Falgoust’s wife is a former preschool teacher in Lafourche Parish. She operates Cherry Books along with bookstore manager Teresa Fruchey.
“Without Teresa we wouldn’t have been able to open the bookstore,” she said. “I have a strong children’s background, but we needed someone with overall experience in running a bookstore.”
“Dedicating the front room of the bookstore to the local artists shows just how much Thibodaux and other local areas have to offer,” Susie said. “Our goal was to be integrated into the community where we are giving back as much as we get.”
Owners Woody and Susie Falgoust are surrounded by family members and tenants of The Cherry Building in Thibodaux. The site houses five businesses, including the newest occupants, Cherry Books. * Photo courtesy of WOODY FALGOUST
