2,500 new homes planned for east-suburban Livingston
Post-Katrina population boom continues
Livingston sites sold for housing
Company could build 2,500 homes
By TED GRIGGS
Advocate business writer
Published: Mar 22, 2006
National homebuilder D.R. Horton has signed purchase options on more than 1,500 acres of property in Livingston Parish, with preliminary plans to build around 2,500 single-family homes.
The Fort Worth, Texas-based firm optioned the properties of developers Saun Sullivan and H. Allen Thomasen in deals that could be worth around $25 million, according to records at the Livingston Parish Clerk of Court’s Office.
The properties under option include:
In Denham Springs, 191 lots on 117.6 acres off Juban Road, known as the John L. Lane tract; and 89 lots on 82 acres off La. 1019, known as Quail Creek.
In Walker, 1,272 lots on 473 acres, known as South Haven; and 472 lots on 729 acres, known as Woodland Crossing, which lies off Buddy Ellis Road.
In Watson, 172 lots on 192.7 acres, known as South Point.
The deal also includes options on Omni Mortgage LLC, Provident Title and Day Building Supply, clerk of court records show.
Officials with D.R. Horton did not return phone calls Tuesday or during the previous three weeks. Sullivan and Thomasen also declined to comment.
The deal covers pretty much everything that partners Thomasen and Sullivan own in Livingston Parish, said Wesley Moore, of commercial real-estate appraisers Cook, Moore & Associates.
Moore said homebuilding giants such as D.R. Horton and KB Homes, who moved into the area following Hurricane Katrina, probably have not finished their shopping sprees.
In fact, KB Home has partnered with Baton Rouge’s The Shaw Group to build up to 20,000 houses in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
The partnership announced plans Tuesday to build 60 houses in the River Garden area of New Orleans and 15 homes in the old St. Thomas Housing Project neighborhood. The River Garden houses will be aimed at young professionals and families and will sell for between $280,000 to $450,000. The St. Thomas homes will sell for $130,000 to $140,000, and will be aimed at former residents and first-time homebuyers.
KB/Shaw bought 30 lots in the Jefferson Retreat subdivision in Baton Rouge for $2.46 million in a deal that closed last week.
So far, the national firms have focused most of their attention on Livingston and Ascension parishes, snapping up subdivisions that have already won local government approval.
“There’s a much greater volume of land in Livingston and Ascension,” Moore said. “There are also fewer barriers to single-family residential developments.”
The costs of regulatory approval and impact fees are much lower in those parishes, and developers encounter fewer headaches and red tape, Moore said.
In East Baton Rouge, a developer who needs to fill in a piece of property has to get the dirt from within the same flood plain, Moore said. The idea is to make sure the original property’s water-retention characteristics remain the same, so that areas that did not flood before the development remain flood-free afterward.
However, in Ascension Parish, a developer can haul dirt in from just about anywhere, Moore said. The developer can buy some cheap land somewhere and dig a hole there for the fill, a much-cheaper alternative.
Horton already owned properties in seven subdivisions, including Ascension Trace in Gonzales and Elmwood Park in Hammond. The Livingston Parish subdivisions include Forest Ridge and Westminster, off Buddy Ellis Road in Denham Springs; and Park Ridge, off Sims Road between Hoss Road and La. 16.
Advocate business writer Timothy Boone contributed to this report.