Fink: Upscale rentals would draw residents

Backers of a proposed luxury, gated apartment community near Franklin believe they’ve got the start to St. Mary Parish’s housing shortage.

Investerra Contractors and CMW Builders LLC plan to build a 336-unit complex – La Maison Sur La Teche – in Garden City, located at the corner of La. Highways 182 and 3214.

Situated in the parish’s center region, the complex would be similar to another Investerra property, Southdown Pavilion, which opened in Houma in 2005 near the Southern Oaks Golf Club on Bayou Black Drive.

Investerra Marketing Director Laura Mott said the Garden City units would actually be bigger, according to the current design. Phase one calls for approximately 156 one-bedroom apartments, measuring 1,000 square feet, and 12 two-bedroom units measuring 1,300 square feet to be built.

“To date, we are very close to finalizing the land contract,” she said. “And we have commissioned an architect who has completed our plans for the project.”

Company president and CEO Mike Wick said the Garden City complex would include solar and other environmentally-friendly materials. “Our goal is to make the people of this parish proud, while at the same time fulfilling a serious need,” he said.

Before the project can move ahead, developers must clear a few hurdles.

The St. Mary Parish Council approved the sale of $3 million in bonds last month to create infrastructure on the property – roads and sewage. However, Henry “Bo” LaGrange, the parish’s chief administrative officer, questions whether it is possible to get enough water pressure to the property.

And Wick said he is still contending with a number of permitting and zoning issues with the state.

However, project manager Frank Alcaraz is confident his group will get the final OK at the parish council’s meeting tonight rezoning the property from an agricultural to residential area.

Meanwhile, St. Mary Parish Economic Development Director Frank Fink is banking on the complex, saying it could help relieve housing woes and lead to expansion within the parish. “Rooftops mean retail – more people living here,” he said.

According to Fink, St. Mary businesses employ at least 5,000 people who live in neighboring parishes – Iberia, Terrebonne and Lafourche. “We don’t have any room for these folks to live,” he said. “If we did, we’d have the bigger tax base we need, which would allow us to expand and grow.”

St. Mary Chamber of Commerce Director Donna Meyer is also “looking forward to an anticipated influx of new residents,” as the Maison on the Teche gated community emerges from what is now a cane field.

Meyer said the chamber’s rental sales’ list has ranged from 2,531 to 7,745 over the past five years. “On average, more than 400 lists per month were sold,” she said. “You can see that if the apartment demand was only 10 percent of the annual list average, 400 apartment units would be required to fill the big gap.”

She predicts that over the coming two years, St. Mary will see 2,400 new employees arrive, most of whom will require transitional housing.

“We recognize that the 2009 economy reflects a national recession, yet more than 2,600 lists were sold through the first 10 months of this year,” she said.

By prepping the proposed site, the parish emerges with a marketable piece of real estate should the project flop, said council chairman Gary Duhon.

Councilman Kevin Voisin said he isn’t sold on the project as he cast the only vote against the $3 million bond sale needed to begin creating the infrastructure.

“This parish council always opens its wallet and jumps too quickly without asking any questions,” he said. “We don’t have any guarantees from this company, and we don’t know that much about them. How do we know they’re going to fulfill their obligations?”

“The parish is currently in way too much bond debt,” he said.