Eastern Spanish Town lots sold

The Advocate
By CHRIS GAUTREAU 
Advocate business writer 

One of the last, big pieces of empty Spanish Town land has changed hands in a deal that observers hope will one day kick-start development outside the eastern edge of downtown.

Highlander Downtown Developments LLC, a division of Donnie Jarreau Companies, paid $2.1 million Thursday for properties totaling 11.3 acres east of Interstate 110.

Chad Ortte, a Donnie Jarreau agent who helped broker the deal with seller Joseph Atiyeh, said the land - actually several parcels north of Main Street and west of the railroad tracks - was purchased primarily as an investment.

"There are no immediate plans," Ortte said Friday. "We just think downtown is a good place for investment. We're considering different things, (but) our main focus was closing."

Samuel Sanders, executive director of the Mid-City Redevelopment Alliance, said, however, that his group is "extremely hopeful" Donnie Jarreau Companies will develop the land surrounding Nicholson Elementary School on North Street.

"Our belief is that is probably the best tract available in this area to do a high-density development with a commercial mix," Sanders said. "It's one that would also bring about that development 'wave' we've been looking for between downtown and midcity."

Ortte said that closing the sale took more than a year because of the lengthy process of gaining clear title to the land.

"It was one of most complicated deals we've ever done," he said.

Establishing clear title is a frequent hurdle for development the city's older neighborhoods. Potential buyers often walk away, rather than get bogged down by the process of tracking down generations of heirs or sorting out decades' worth of unpaid liens and taxes.

"It's made some situations a little more challenging," Sanders acknowledged. "It becomes more and more work for the average developer who doesn't have time."

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