ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) - Kate Dickey has had her eye on the Versailles Boulevard area as the ideal location for her restaurant, Good People Kitchen, for years now.
If all goes well, the move will happen in early 2018.
Dickey plans to move GPK, as it’s known to customers who love the restaurant for its healthy offerings, from its current home on MacArthur Boulevard to the Versailles Shopping Center, a relatively new strip mall on the rapidly growing corridor.
“I just feel like it’s going to be a really good fit,” Dickey said. “I’ve been wanting to be in that area for the last three years.”
She’s not alone.
Versailles Boulevard is seeing significant commercial growth to go with its already robust residential growth. And it could be just getting started.
“Our market seems to be wanting to move in that direction,” said Joey Vercher, who has developed significant residential and commercial assets in the area with partner Wayne Vollman.
Longtime local real estate professional Rod Noles has tracked the development of Versailles closely. Combining Versailles as the “backbone” and the streets feeding into it on either side as “ribs,” he counts a total of more than $50 million in residential and commercial construction that has happened or is happening.
“The highest concentration of private construction dollars is taking place in that corridor,” Noles said. “It’s the only new place you can go in Alexandria right now.”
Rapid growth
The newest part of Versailles has only been open since 2010.
That’s when the city of Alexandria completed the $12.5 million project to extend the road 2.5 miles to La. Highway 28 West, connecting two of the city’s busiest corridors in 28 West and Jackson Street Extension.
The Lake District residential development on the east side of Versailles was already under development by then. Vercher and Vollman purchased a large tract of land on the west side and began Pecan Bayou subdivision.
The Lake District is starting its next phase of home building, adding 31 more lots to the 110 already there.
Pecan Bayou has a total of 165 residential lots. Of those, 102 have been sold, 62 houses have been built and 11 more are under construction.
When you add Magnolia Trace Apartments in the Lake District, that’s several hundred new residences built or in development along a short stretch of road. More residential development is planned, including a potential new apartment complex.
“The residents are there,” Noles said, “and when you have residential, commercial follows.”
When Good People Kitchen moves into Versailles Shopping Center, it will be located next to Beans n’ Cream, an ice cream and coffee shop that opened this year. A sign heralds the coming of a clothing and gift store in an adjacent space.
Other buildings in the development already house a law firm, a pharmacy, a barber shop, a primary care center and medical offices.
On the next block, a new Y-Not Stop - a popular Central Louisiana chain of fuel stations/convenience stores/cafes - is under construction. Nearby is a financial services firm.
Both Noles and Vercher are working with multiple clients who are interested in locating businesses to the Versailles area.
“The traffic count is already there, and you see more and more each day,” Vercher said. “That will only increase as more homes are built.”
“Right now, you can get a location on Versailles much cheaper than (28 West), but that won’t last,” Noles said. “Once Good People Kitchen and Ray’s Pharmacy and the others prove out that they’re pioneers and not settlers, the settlers will come.”
’A neighborhood, community hot spot’
Dickey plans on keeping the Good People Kitchen formula of healthy food in a fast casual setting in the new place, with some tweaks.
The new place will have a bar and, thus, will be open later. Dickey plans on adding more menu options while staying within the concept of “feeling good about what you eat.”
The space will also “feel bigger,” she said, with a larger dining area than GPK’s current home, the former Kitchen Warehouse that Dickey and her husband bought in 2014.
“We’re looking to make it a neighborhood and community hot spot,” she said. “There are a few places, but the (dining) options in that area are limited. There are so many neighborhoods in that area.”
As far as Versailles has come, developers feel there is still room for growth. Noles is so bullish on the area that he sometimes second-guesses whether he goes too far in selling it.
An extension to Provine Place, which connects Versailles Boulevard with the Wal-Mart Supercenter on 28 West, was recently completed and opens up even more development possibilities. A large self-storage facility is already under construction there.
“Provine will be a good test,” Noles said. “If we can fill that up in five years, that will be a good sign for Alexandria. If we struggle to fill it, that will not such a good sign. I believe it will happen.”
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Information from: Alexandria Daily Town Talk, https://www.thetowntalk.com
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