Rouses Market hopes to be ‘makin’ groceries’ at first Baton Rouge store by summer 2016

Rouses opens first Baton Rouge location at Long Farm Village August 2016 Rouses Supermarket at Long Farm Village is open and ready for business! The 55,000-square-foot store anchors the commercial portion of the Long Farm Village development at the intersection of Airline Highway and Antioch Road. It has the same layout as the Juban Crossing store. Donny Rouse, the managing partner for the family-owned store, said the opening of the Baton Rouge location took on a new urgency after the Denham Springs store flooded. “People get so excited about everything we have to offer,” Rouse said. “But given the tragic circumstances, this opening has taken on a whole new meaning.” Along with selling south Louisiana favorites such as jambalaya, smothered chicken, and red beans and rice with sausage, Rouse said the new store will continue to have plenty of supplies needed for flood cleanup — bleach, gloves, house cleaning supplies and hand sanitizers. As shoppers walk in, they’re met with an array of colors, from the yellow, pink and purple hues that burst forth from a floral section of sunflowers, lilies, and carnations to the vibrant oranges, red apples and fresh greens that fill an abundant produce section. The decor is festive, and the environment is lively. A large sign reads “Fresh Foods” above a display of prepared meals and side dishes. Rouses Marketing and Advertising Director Tim Acosta says the company’s principles are rooted in the words of founder Anthony Rouse Sr., who “always said the best quality and best price. The customer is always right. The answer is ‘yes.’” “A celebration of food right as you walk in.” That’s how Steve Black, the company’s new president and COO, describes the Rouses experience. Black is a 40-year veteran of the industry and former president of Colorado-based Lucky’s Market. He joined Rouses in November because he was impressed by the family business and its vision for the future. “If there’s one supermarket in the country that’s got it all together, it’s Rouses,” Black says The produce section is a focal point of the 50,000-square-foot store. To the right is a traditional setting of basic grocery aisles. To the left is an upscale epicurean market with an extensive deli, prepared foods, fresh meat and seafood departments, as well as gourmet cheeses, signature desserts, salad and olive bars, a coffee-grinding station, sushi bar and even a Mongolian grill. Rouses’ culinary expertise is on display at every turn. It’s a new store concept, where customers can watch as cooks cut meats and vegetables, and prepare their sushi, paninis and smoked brisket plate lunches. Some customers come to shop. Some come to eat. Many do both. And that’s what Rouses wants: Customers spending time in their stores and enjoying the experience, as Rouse explains while sitting in the dining area as a lunchtime crowd gathers. “At Rouses, we want to have the full shopping experience for our customers,” Rouse says. “We offer what Whole Foods offers. We offer what Wal-Mart offers. We do it at fantastic prices, and we also have the local products that independent grocers have.” With Thibodaux as its base and Houma as its birthplace, Rouses has longstanding ties with local fishermen, and most of the seafood it sells—speckled trout, redfish, crabs, and oysters, among other catches—is from local Gulf Coast suppliers. “We do seafood better than anyone,” Rouse says. “We know seafood. We grew up around seafood. We sell more Louisiana shrimp and crawfish than any retailer in the state.” But Rouses’ emphasis on local extends far beyond seafood. From produce and salad dressings to craft beer, Cajun sausage and barbecue sauce, Rouses stocks and celebrates local providers. Jim Dudlicek, editor-in-chief of trade publication Progressive Grocer, says this focus has been a major part of Rouses’ success. “Rouses has become a tireless supporter of local products, using its success to boost its many home-state suppliers,” Dudlicek says. “The folks who run Rouses know food and the people who make it—they know the farmers, the growers, the fishermen.” For anyone looking for a unique, upscale local grocery shopping experience, Rouses Supermarket at Long Farm is a must do.

Enter to win your dream home in Long Farm Village! Tickets are now on sale for the 21st Annual Baton Rouge St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway. Get your ticket today to win a brand-new house built by Alvarez Construction with an estimated value of $540,000 and located in the Long Farm Village subdivision in Baton Rouge.  Additional Prize Information: Grand Prize: St. Jude Dream Home house, built by Alvarez Construction, with an estimated value of $540,000. Tickets on Sale Prize: Get your tickets by March 24 to be eligible to win groceries for a year, valued up to $2,500, courtesy of Dream Day Foundation. Early Bird Prize: Get your tickets by April 21 to be eligible to win a cruise for two in an ocean view cabin on Carnival Cruise Lines valued at $5,000, courtesy of Dream Day Foundation. Bonus Prize: Reserve your tickets by June 9 be eligible to win a Kia Sorrento SX V6 SUV valued at $40,000, courtesy of All Star Automotive. Open House Prize: Tour the home and register to win a $10,000 VISA Gift Card, courtesy of The UPS Store. A $1,000 VISA Gift Card, courtesy of All My Sons Moving and Storage. ArtessoTM Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet with SmartTouch Technology, courtesy of Brizo®. Ultimate Raising Cane’s Tailgate Package including free Cane’s for a year, YETI or K2 cooler and more. Wine pairing dinner for 10 people at 18STEAK, courtesy of L’Auberge Baton Rouge. Blaze 32 inch 4 burner grill on cart, courtesy of ShoppersChoice.com Kitchen and Patio Showroom. Every ticket helps St. Jude kids and the mission of St. Jude: Finding cures. Saving children ®. And because of the support of people like you, families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food — because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. Long Farm Village Development along with builder Alvarez Construction is proud to be a sponsor of the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway for the second year in a row!

BATON ROUGE BUSINESS REPORT STEPHANIE RIEGEL JANUARY 19, 2017 Several new commercial tenants are coming to Long Farm, developer Russell Mosely’s 237-acre planned unit development at Airline Highway and Antioch Road. Orangetheory Fitness will open its second Baton Rouge location in what will be the second of three commercial buildings at Long Farm. Massage Envy and Avatar Nail Salon are also opening new locations in the 9,450-square-foot building, which is currently under construction. The new businesses will join several commercial tenants in an adjacent 9,700-square-foot building, which is already completed. It is home to an AT&T store, Starbucks and a Pacific Dental office, and a Five Guys hamburger restaurant is scheduled to open there in February. A Rouse’s Supermarket and Zaxby’s restaurant are also located on outparcels in the development. Meanwhile, a third commercial building of between 9,000 and 10,000 square feet is in the planning stage and Mosely has signed letters of intent with several tenants, though no lease agreements have yet been finalized. “I’m really happy with it,” says Mosely, who began developing Long Farm in 2008 on the property once owned by his grandfather, the late U.S. Sen. Russell Long. “The market is really strong and we’re getting a lot of interest.” In addition to the commercial buildings, construction is underway on the 13-building complex of 276 multifamily units being developed at Long Farm by Arlington Properties. The complex should be complete next month, and Mosely says leasing activity is strong.  Meanwhile, 121 of the PUD’s 350 or so residential lots have been completed. Of those, all but 20 are sold. “The key has been to build the momentum,” Mosely says.

New Baton Rouge neighborhood development, Long Farm Village was recently honored with a “2016 Good Growth Award” by the Baton Rouge Growth Coalition. Long Farm Developer, Russell Mosely was presented with the award in October at a gala held at the Renaissance Hotel.  Every other year, the Baton Rouge Growth Coalition Good Growth Awards recognizes and honors professionals in the development profession who are “raising the bar” of development in the Baton Rouge area. This is one of the most popular events on the Baton Rouge real estate calendar. Awards are presented to the recognized winners at the Good Growth Awards banquet and the projects are featured in a special section of the Baton Rouge Business Report. Long Farm Village is an up and coming pedestrian-scaled community, where residents have access to shopping, dining, office and retail space all within walking distance of their homes. One of the best places to live in Baton Rouge, Long Farm Village is a true return to neighborhood living. For more information on living in Long Farm, or available Commercial Real Estate Space, contact Russell Moseley at russell@longfarmbr.com or call (225) 308-4546 Option 2.

BATON ROUGE BUSINESS REPORT STEPHANIE RIEGEL NOVEMBER 5, 2015 Developer Russell Mosely is moving forward with plans for two new commercial buildings that will house restaurant and retail tenants at Long Farm, his planned unit development off Barringer Foreman Road near Airline Highway. Mosely filed final development plans today with the Planning Commission for two separate buildings that will collectively total around 18,000 square feet. The developer confirms he has signed leases with at least two tenants that will occupy the space and has letters of intent from several others. He declines to identify any of them at this point but says they are both local and national companies and include both food service tenants and retail stores. The application is the latest development at the 237-acre PUD. Earlier this week, Rouses Supermarket broke ground on a 55,000-square-foot supermarket that will anchor the development. In October, the Birmingham, Alabama company that is developing a 276-unit multifamily complex at the Long Farm acquired the 12.2-acre tract on which the complex will be built and began construction. Arlington Properties anticipates having a clubhouse and first four of 13 planned buildings complete by the second quarter of 2016. The Rouses and two new commercial buildings are also expected to be complete by next summer. Zaxby’s, the Athens, Georgia-based restaurant chain known for chicken fingers and wings, is planning to develop its first location in Baton Rouge —and third in the Capital Region—in the Long Farm development. The Planning Commission will take up the Long Farm application at its Dec. 21 meeting.

BATON ROUGE BUSINESS REPORT STEPHANIE RIEGEL OCTOBER 15, 2015 The Birmingham, Alabama company that is developing a 276-unit multifamily complex at the Long Farm planned unit development has acquired the 12.2-acre tract on which the complex will be built. In a sale that closed Wednesday, a limited liability company owned by Arlington Properties acquired the tract from Mosely Development Company. The deal had been previously announced, and in August the Planning Commission had signed off on Arlington Properties’ plans for the 13-building complex. Construction on the complex began this morning, and the clubhouse and first four buildings should be completed by the second quarter of 2016, according to Dave Ellis, vice president for Arlington Properties, which will develop, lease and manage the complex. The remaining nine buildings should be finished by the end of next year. The complex will feature one-, two- and three-bedroom units that will be located in the 13 three-story, garden-style buildings. Each building will have an average of four units, which will range in size from 800 square feet for one-bedroom units to 1,325 square feet for three bedroom units. Monthly lease rates will average $1,340. A French garden-style clubhouse will feature a pool and cabana with swings and televisions around an outdoor patio. “We think we are filling a niche in that part of town,” Ellis says. “There isn’t a lot of new, Class A competition in that part of the market.” The multifamily development will be located in the third filing of Long Farm, developer Russell Mosely’s 237-acre PUD off Barringer Foreman Road near Airline Highway. The first filing of 65 single- family lots is complete, and construction is underway on the second filing. Meanwhile, Rouses Supermarket has secured permits to develop a 55,00-square-foot supermarket that is expected to be completed next summer, and Zaxby’s restaurant has also signed on to open a location within Long Farm. —Stephanie Riegel 

BATON ROUGE BUSINESS REPORT RYAN BROUSSARD OCTOBER 13, 2015 Rouses Enterprises received the permit Friday for its long-awaited Rouses grocery store in the Long Farm development underway on Airline Highway, clearing the way for construction to begin on the 53,545-square-foot supermarket in the traditional neighborhood development. Construction is expected to cost $8.46 million and will include 4,300 square feet of outside seating space, according to the permit. Rouses purchased 4.8 acres of land in Long Farm in 2014 for an undisclosed price. Long Farm developers first announced in 2013 that Rouses Supermarket would anchor the first retail phase of the massive 237-acre TND bordered by Airline Highway, Barringer Foreman Road and the Antioch Road Extension on property once owned by developer Russell Mosely’s grandfather, the late U.S. Sen. Russell Long. Attempts to reach Mosely or Rouses officials for comment on the construction timeline before today’s afternoon deadline were unsuccessful. The Houma-based supermarket chain began in 1960 and has more than 6,000 employees working in 50 stores across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. This will be the second Rouses second location in the Baton Rouge metro area with the first in Juban Crossing in Livingston Parish. Zaxby’s, the Athens, Georgia-based restaurant chain known for fried chicken strips and wings, filed permits last month to build a 4,100-square-foot location adjacent to the supermarket. Besides Rouses and Zaxby’s, about 76,000 square feet of retail space is available at Long Farm. For the residential portion of Long Farm, national home-builder DR Horton has built and sold 30 homes, while local builders are in various stages of development in other lots. Scott Bardwell, owner of Bardwell Homes, says they just began construction on their first home after encountering some snags after purchasing 26 lots in May. Four of the first six planned homes have been pre-sold, Bardwell says. Atlanta-based ECI Group has also signed on to build a 276-unit apartment complex on 12 acres of land on the eastern portion of Long Farm and about 200 feet off Antioch Road.

BY MATTHEW SIGUR | MSIGUR@THEADVOCATE.COM Sept. 10, 2015; 3:41 p.m. Baton Rouge is establishing itself as a food destination. Every day, more and more food news is cooking in the area. A weekly feature to Red, “Leftovers” is a roundup of the latest on the local food and restaurant scene. Sammy’s Southern Bistro coming to The Oasis Though a date has not been set, Sammy’s Southern Bistro is set to open in The Oasis, a mixed-use development on Burbank Drive. The restaurant is a sports themed café, and yes, it comes from the owners of the ever-popular Sammy’s Grill. Sammy Nagem told reporters that the restaurant will feature a paired-down menu as well as small plates and wraps. For more information, visit sammysgrill.com. Zaxby’s plans four Baton Rouge restaurants Raising Cane’s will have some chicken finger competition, starting this fall. Zaxby’s, the Georgia-based chain that also specializes in chicken tenders as well as chicken wings and salads, plans to open four restaurants in metro Baton Rouge over the next few months. A franchise restaurant at 1850 W. La. 30 in Gonzales, near the Interstate 10 exit, should open at the beginning of October. By early November, a company-owned restaurant at 34071 La. 16 near Watson is set to open. A Zachary location on Main Street, across from Wal-Mart, should be open by mid-December. The chain has also applied for a permit to build a third company-owned Zaxby’s in the Long Farm traditional neighborhood development at Airline Highway and Antioch Road. Each restaurant will have about 40 to 60 employees, and the restaurant will be about 3,500 square feet with seating for 90 people. For more information, visit zaxbys.com Follow Matthew Sigur on Twitter, @MatthewSigur . Timothy Boone contributed to this story.