Decade in Review: 1980s

Business Report publishes its first edition, in September, profiling Baton Rouge’s most prolific entrepreneurs of the time.

Real estate agent Steve Wicker tries to get “exchanging” to catch on, in which properties of equal value are exchanged without taxes.

1982

$1.59 MILLION

Sale price listed for the historic Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville

The city-parish announces it will complete the extension of Coursey Boulevard to Airline Highway. • A 100-acre tract at O’Neal Lane and Interstate 12 is purchased for a new general medical surgical hospital.

• The Backpacker opens on Jefferson Highway in

October.

The Telephone Book Company enters the local market as Baton Rouge’s second phone number directory competitor.

The Silver Volt emerges as Baton Rouge’s first electric luxury car, retailing for around $49,000. 1983

American Airlines signs a 25-year lease with Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport.

One of the city’s oldest law firms, Sanders, Downing, Kean & Cazedessus, divides into three firms: Kean Miller, Steen Rubin, and Downing Cazedessus.

The restored World War II destroyer USS Kidd opens to the public for tours.

Work begins on Corporate Atrium, an 82,000-square-foot hexagon office project across from the Baton Rouge Hilton.

More than 18 shopping centers are under construction in Baton Rouge, including Bocage Village, Connell’s Village, Bluebonnet Village and Lake Sherwood Shopping Center.

Juban’s Restaurant Inc., specializing in New Orleans-style Creole cooking, files for corporation.

Motorists begin using the newly constructed Industriplex Boulevard, a 1.4-mile stretch of cut-through glory.

700,000

Number of units of Diet Coke delivered to the Baton Rouge market in a single day when the soda launches in March

82

Number of Piccadilly Cafeterias in the U.S. at the time (now 33)

1984 1985

New Orleans supermarket mogul John Schwegmann brings his chain to Baton Rouge, opening a $10 million

Schwegmann Giant

Supermarket on

South Sherwood Forest

Boulevard, intensifying competition in an already fragmented market.

Catfish Town

opens over the summer with about 80 shops and restaurants for patrons to peruse. Ben Alford of Benny’s Car Wash gains local prominence for his full-service car washes and advertising featuring stuffed gorillas and mechanical chickens.

City National Bank opens its new downtown headquarters,

City Plaza.

Adams and Reese expands into Baton Rouge with the opening of a new law office, the second major New Orleans firm to do so. Earlier in the year, Phelps Dunbar entered the market.

Development on the 600-acre residential community Country

Club of Louisiana

gets underway, with a Jack Nicklaus signature golf course, palatial clubhouse, rolling hills and stately homes.

C.J. Brown Realtors

announces plans to open a real estate store in Cortana Mall, following a national trend of Realtors setting up shop in malls. The Allied Group—Mark Washauer, Price “Pre” LeBlanc Jr. and Crews R. LeBlanc—hope to breathe new life into Corporate Mall, off of Corporate Boulevard and I-10, with a $2 million remodel and rebrand into Esplanade.

Developer Victor Coursey announces plans for Fantasea Park, “a little bit of Disney for Baton Rouge,” at I-10 and Highland Road. Today, the water park is known as Blue Bayou.

$36 million

Price paid for Bon Marché Mall by New York-based Security Capital Real Estate Fund Holding Company

• After a six-year hiatus,

Gris Gris announces it will resume publication in August under the new leadership of co-owner and political writer

John Maginnis.

River Road Recipes, published by the Junior League of Baton Rouge, sells its millionth copy.

Developers begin negotiating with the Robert Trent Jones Group to design a championship golf course on the 455-acre site of the old Santa Maria Dairy off Perkins Road. The project is ultimately saved when BREC handles the golf course while Charlie Cole develops the surrounding residential property.

$154.4 million

Price that Service Merchandise paid for the H.J. Wilson operation

Multilevel marketing takes Baton Rouge—and the nation—by storm with the rise of Amway, Mary Kay, Shaklee, Herbalife and other direct-sell brands. Developers Walter Bankston, Jim Sumrow and Don Hayden acquire 187 acres—with more than 1,000 feet of frontage on Highland Road—to create Woodgate.

The Greater Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce launches its Leadership Baton Rouge program—with an initial class of 30—to train professionals to become community resources.

The Medical Center of Baton Rouge celebrates its grand opening in March.

POINTS OF LIGHT

Thank you to the employees of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana. Thank you, Blue Cross employees, for being Louisiana True.

Because of your hard work in the community, our company has been recognized as one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the country by former President George H.W. Because of your hard work in the community, our company has been recognized as one of the 50 most communityminded companies in the country by former President George H.W. Bush’s Points of Light organization. This is the fourth year in a row you’ve won this honor. Bush’s Points of Light organization. Last year, Blue Cross employees volunteered more than

Last year, Blue Cross employees 30,000 hours to neighbors and communities in Louisiana. volunteered 35,000 hours to Louisiana nonprofits.

Maurin-Ogden Development Corp. announces plans for Siegen Village, to be anchored by Kmart, Gulf States Theaters Siegen Cinema 10 and Burger King.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of

Louisiana announces plans to build new headquarters on Bluebonnet Boulevard, incorporating its existing offices on Reitz Boulevard.

The Metro Council enacts a moratorium on the permitting of any new billboards in the parish, further fueling billboard wars between Lamar and new competitor 3-M National Advertising Company. Exxon begins offering workforce reduction incentives to many of its 40,500 employees to avoid layoffs.

New Orleans-based Ochsner looks to enter the Baton Rouge market.

Issue Date: Sept 2022 Ad proof #2

• Please respond by e-mail or fax with your approval or minor revisions. • AD WILL RUN AS IS unless approval or final revisions are received within 24 hours from receipt of this proof. A shorter timeframe will apply for tight deadlines. • Additional revisions must be requested and may be subject to production fees. Carefully check this ad for: CORRECT ADDRESS • CORRECT PHONE NUMBER • ANY TYPOS This ad design © Louisiana Business, Inc. 2022. All rights reserved. Phone 225-928-1700 • Fax 225-926-1329 Frank Kean III purchases the dry-cleaning end of the Keans Louisiana Partnership from 23 other former partners and vows to make changes, including the end of hat cleaning services.

1986

Photon

opens in Baton Rouge as a lifesized video game akin to laser tag.

Toys R Us

breaks ground on its $1.4 million Florida Boulevard location.

On site phone solutions

Hosted phone solutions

1987

107

Number of beds at Lane Memorial Hospital in Zachary

Chef John Folse

closes on a deal to lease with an option to buy the 22-acre White Oak Plantation, hoping to develop a catering business and expand his brand. The landmark Coca-Cola sign in downtown Baton Rouge is refurbished. It will need another refurbishing nearly three decades later.

Developer Mike Wampold, then 32, lands a military contract to build 600 housing units in Fort Polk, Louisiana. Jim Bernhard, then 32, establishes National Fabricators, which quickly becomes one of the nation’s top three pipe fabricators.

508

Number of points the stock market loses on “Black Monday”

Davis Rhorer

is appointed executive director of the Downtown

Development

District, a position he holds until his death in 2021. • Piggly Wiggly expands into the

Baton Rouge market.

• Once billed as a harbinger of rejuvenation for downtown Baton

Rouge, Catfish Town struggles to attract and retain shoppers.

• Wal-Mart signs a lease to occupy the former Woolco building at Acadian Thruway and

Perkins Road, now the site of the

Acadian Village shopping center.

Lee Michaels Fine Jewelry congratulates the Business Report for being a true gem in our community for 40 years!

1988 1989

Dan Juneau is tapped to lead the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry after a two-year search to replace retired president Ed Steimel.

159

Baton Rouge’s ranking in Money magazine’s annual survey of the nation’s best places to live The former H.J. Wilson corporate headquarters on Florida Boulevard is sold to the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry for more than $4 million.

Great American Corp., holding company for Baton Rouge’s AmBank, is acquired by Union Planters Corporation, marking the first purchase of a major Louisiana bank by an out-of-state institution.

Charlie D’Agastino is tapped to lead Control Data Corp.’s Business and Technology Center, which would eventually be taken over by LSU.

Gerry Lane of Polk Chevrolet acquires the Terry Spitzer Buick-Subaru dealership on Florida Boulevard.

Boudoir photography gains gift-giving steam in Baton Rouge, with women posing semi-nude for boyfriends or husbands.

Tudor Construction Co. proclaims its confidence that no projects underway at the Jimmy

Swaggart World of Ministries

complex will cease in the wake of the evangelist’s sex scandal.

Ralph and Kacoo

Olinde sell their sixrestaurant seafood chain for $33 million to Piccadilly Cafeterias. Officials for the Country Club of Louisiana and Jack Nicklaus Development Corp. announce a mutual agreement for JNDC’s buyout. The LSU Interfraternity Council implements a policy prohibiting fraternities from using money collected for rent or dues to buy alcohol.

Exxon Co. USA begins construction on a $45.4 million lube-oil blending plant in West Baton Rouge Parish.

Previously available on tap at only eight restaurants,

Abita Brewing Co. Inc.

puts its Golden and Amber brands on the shelves of some 30 stores.

The Pistol, about Pete Maravich’s youth, begins filming with more than 50 local basketball players trying out for roles.

Construction begins on the $1.5 million Riverfront Plaza dock, an all-steel spiraling ramp project. After more than 18 months of roadwork, Perkins Road merchants grow frustrated with construction delays and the loss of business.

Cotton Brothers Baking

Co. ceases production at its Baton Rouge bakery, with bread now coming from Monroe and Alexandria.

Ending Woman’s Hospital’s 21-year-monopoly on the non-charity baby business in Baton Rouge, the Medical

Center of Baton Rouge

announces the addition of the Genesis obstetrics unit.

Issue Date: Sept 2022 Ad proof #2

• Please respond by e-mail or fax with your approval or minor revisions. • AD WILL RUN AS IS unless approval or final revisions are received within 24 hours from receipt of this proof. A shorter timeframe will apply for tight deadlines. • Additional revisions must be requested and may be subject to production fees. Carefully check this ad for: CORRECT ADDRESS • CORRECT PHONE NUMBER • ANY TYPOS This ad design © Louisiana Business, Inc. 2022. All rights reserved. Phone 225-928-1700 • Fax 225-926-1329

Blue Bayou

celebrates its grand opening following a $1 million rebrand, improvements and new management.

Celebrating 40 years of helping businesses in Baton Rouge.

We wish to recognize and honor the passing of our esteemed partner, James S. Holliday, Jr., on March 18, 2022, after a distinguished career spanning 57 years in the practice of law.

Jimmy’s illustrious career is highlighted by his co-authorship of two scholarly legal manuals, Louisiana Corporations, first published by West Publishing in 1985, and Louisiana Construction Law, first published in 1979 by West Publishing, now Thompson Reuters, which are updated annually.

The Baringer Law Firm, LLC

aTTorneys aT Law

Business & Commercial Law • Mediation Real Estate Law • Estate Planning Tax Law • Construction Litigation Succession Litigation • And More

WWW.BARINGERLAWFIRM.COM 201 ST. CHARLES STREET, BATON ROUGE 225-383-9953