cajunguy

Well, I think Lafayette is poised to get not one but two locations of the cosmetic chain Sephora. The first one will be located in the new JC Penney on the north side of Lafayette in the Stirling Center. That one has been confirmed by the weekly newspaper The Independent and also on Sephora's website. The other one is supposedly in the Mall of Acadiana in the spot vacated by Bombay. I found out about that one on Lafayette's permit website because Sephora has applied for a building permit. I e-mailed CBL Properties today to confirm, but have not heard back as of yet. If it is true, that means Lafayette will get the second Sephora (not including in JC Penney's) in the state after the one in Baton Rouge.

Just wanted to update y'all on the coming hotels in Lafayette (per the Acadiana Business Newspaper) --Residence Inn by Marriott (83 rooms) will be located on James Comeaux Rd. right off of Pinhook on the site of an old K-Mart. The area around it is being developed into a semi-lifestyle center type development. The hotel will be opening this month. --Candlewood Suites (81 rooms) will be located on Kaliste Saloom right near River Ranch on the site of a former Eckerd. It'll be opening late Jan./early Feb. --Two Holiday Inn Expresses will be built off of Kaliste Saloom. The first (100 rooms) will be near the intersection of Kaliste Saloom and Pinhook. The second (80 rooms) will be near the intersection of Kaliste Saloom and Evangeline Thruway. --Staybridge Suites (118 rooms) will be located off of Kaliste Saloom also next to the already established Best Suites. --Wingate by Wyndham will be built at the intersection of Kaliste Saloom and Hugh Wallis (sort of near Evangeline Thru.) --Homewood Suites by Hilton (100 rooms) will be built in downtown Lafayette (second hotel in downtown after The Juliet Boutique Hotel). It will be next to the Federal Courthouse. --Value Place Inn (105 rooms) will be built at the intersection of Ambassador Caffery and Bertrand (I guess about a couple of miles from I-10). --A Marriott property (110 rooms) will be built off of Ambassador Caffery behind an office building on the southside of town (across from O'Halloran's for those familiar w/ Lafayette). I've seen the renderings of the hotel, and it looks like it will be a Springhill Suites. --Hyatt Place (130-150 rooms) will be built off of Pinhook across the river from the Hilton at the site of a former office complex called River Plaza. --River Ranch is getting two hotels. The first, the Inn at River Ranch, will be a 104 room boutique hotel and will be located off of Camellia near Kaliste Saloom. The second, unnamed as of now, will be a condo hotel with 33 units. --Broussard will also be getting two chain hotels, a Comfort Inn and a Holiday Inn Express. Know for some other "goin'-ons" in Lafayette. --On the apartment building front, a 312 unit complex called Ambassador Pointe is seeking zoning approval and if approved will be located behind the abandoned Super K-Mart on Ambassador Caffery. --The site of the former Marshall's Nursery and Lone Star Steakhouse off of Ambassador near the mall is being developed into an upscale shopping/office complex with a Mediterranean feel. It is being called Tuscany Park. Rumor has it that P.F. Chang's is being courted to locate there. --Lafayette is getting their first Plato's Closet in another little strip center being built near the mall. --Finally, the upscale golf/residential community (Chateau Mirage) proposed by John Montesano off of Johnston St. near the mall has pretty much fallen through. Rumor has it here that Montesano is considering developing the land into a theme park instead.

Hey Guys! It's been awhile since I posted, but I have a few new updates around Lafayette. --The same design team who created the new Schlitterbahn in Galveston is designing a new water park in Rayne (about 5 to 10 miles west of Lafayette) to be called Frogland USA. The number of acres escapes me right now, but they are hoping to draw one million visitors in the first year, so it is a pretty large operation. The estimated opening date is Spring of '09. They already have interest from two chain hotels and a few chain restaurants. --Starbucks is opening two new freestanding locations in Lafayette. One is under construction off of Verot School Rd. across from Super Wal-Mart in front of a new strip center. The other is in the planning stages off of Ambassador Caffery near Super Target and Kohl's. --Our Toys R Us is getting a major remodel and will soon be home to both a Toys R Us and a Babies R Us. --The corner of Johnston St. (Hwy 167) and E. Broussard Rd. is becoming home to more businesses. For years, the only service business was McDonald's but a few months ago, our eighth CVS Pharmacy and our seventh Sonic restaurant opened. --Zoes Kitchen, a fast casual restaurant based out of Birmingham, AL, will be opening a location in River Ranch. --Oh, and I forgot to add: The people who own Southpoint Volkswagen in Baton Rouge are building Lafayette's first Volkswagen off of Johnston Street south of the Mall of Acadiana.

We have a few new things happening iaround Lafayette. It almost seems like new projects never stop! --Rouse's Grocery is building their first grocery store in Lafayette Parish in Sugar Mill Pond. I believe it's going to be around 60,000 square feet. --Raising Cane's is building their third restaurant off of Kaliste Saloom and Pinhook in Lafayette. --Dagwood's Sandwich Shoppe is opening a location in the Market at River Ranch. --Towneplace Suites by Marriott is supposedly building a hotel in Lafayette per a hotel development site. --A Fairfield Inn & Suites (2nd Lafayette Fairfield) opened this month on the Vermilion River. --A chain value hotel is building on the northside of town off of Ambassador Caffery. --Hemline, a women's clothing store from New Orleans, is opening up in the Market at River Ranch. Also, Stirling Properties left the Phase II plan of their Stirling Lafayette Center on their website (I guess accidentally) for like 3 days. It showed a Kohl's (it would be our second), a Belk (it would be our first), and Best Buy (it would be our second.) On a side note, the parish population finally surpassed 200,000! As of the 2006 Census Estimate, we have 203,091 people.

I'm not sure if any of ya'll read it, but WAFB is reporting that Macy's may be coming to Juban Crossing. I think that would be a good fit b/c IMO Macy's is a good upper moderate store. The one we have here at the Mall of Acadiana is really nice, and probably my favorite dept store we have at the mall.

Yep, Saks Inc. sold Parisian to Belk, and I believe all the Parisians except 5 or so (those will be sold by Belk) will be turned into Belk during the 3rd Qr of '07. I think the one in Perkins Rowe is not being sold and will become a Belk.

There are pretty many new developments around Lafayette: --Jos. A. Banks opened a store in The Market at River Ranch in November. --Ann Taylor LOFT will be opening their store in The Market at River Ranch later this month. --A new assisted living facility is planned to open in 2008 for River Ranch (I would guess that it would be somewhat upscale given the area) --The Inn at River Ranch, a luxury boutique hotel, is planned to open in early 2008. --The Fresh Market is scheduled to open in River Ranch in Spring 2007. --Another Broken Egg Cafe is slated to open in River Ranch later this month. --A Borders Books is possibly opening in River Ranch next to The Fresh Market in River Ranch as shown on Stirling Properties' e-Package for The Market at River Ranch. --The Backpacker, an outdoor retail store based in Baton Rouge, will soon start construction on an 8,000 square foot store in River Ranch. --W. House and Home, a furniture retailer out of Slidell, is planned to open in The Market at River Ranch. --A new Holiday Inn Express is under construction off of I-10 in Scott. --Barnie's Coffee out of Orlando is currently planned to open in downtown Lafayette. --A downtown boutique hotel, The Juliet, should be open by January. --Backyard Burgers recently opened their first restaurant in Lafayette last month off of Ambassador Caffery Pkwy. It is one of two planned locations, with the other location being undisclosed. --Simply Fondue, a restaurant concept out of Dallas, is finishing up design plans for a restaurant in downtown. So far, those are the only developments that I know of, but with the rapid population growth the Lafayette Metro Area has been seeing, I'm sure there will be more.

Hi all! I'm new here to UrbanPlanet, but I have been lurking awhile. I live in Lafayette, and I wanted to comment on some new developments in the metro area that haven't been mentioned yet. 1) New Broussard Retail & Commercial Projects Broussard is a suburb on the southeast side of Lafayette. As of the 2005 Census estimate, Broussard had 6,754 residents. New businesses locating in Broussard include: Super Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Walgreen's, Ruby Tuesday, Chili's, a bowling alley, a 15 acre water park, a Best Western, and a franchise of one of the Hilton hotel brands. 2) Sugar Mill Pond Sugar Mill Pond is a traditional neighborhood development being developed by the same people as River Ranch. It is located in Youngsville, another suburb of Lafayette. Phase One is already under construction with some residents already moved in. Phase one is 509 acres. At build out, Sugar Mill Pond is planned to have 2,000 single family home. If the average of 2.4 residents per home is applied to that, the population is expected to be approximately 4,800 people. There will be a commercial component to Sugar Mill Pond that is expected to have a Subway restaurant, a major grocer, and other tenants. A Christian high school is also expected to locate in Sugar Mill Pond. 3) Acadiana Lifestyle Center This is one of two lifestyle centers under construction in Lafayette. This one is located in the southern portion of Lafayette. It is a redevelopment of a shopping center that was in decline. The current tenants are: Pippin McGee (a boutique children's furniture store), Chase Bank, a Ramada Inn, and a Subway. The only other tenant announced thus far is a Residence Inn by Marriott. 4) Other Hotels Under Construction in Lafayette Lafayette has many more hotels under construction. On Evangeline Thruway, a Howard Johnson hotel and an independent hotel is planned. Off of Kaliste Saloom, a Candlewood Suites (owned by Intercontinental Hotels) is planned across from River Ranch. On the Vermilion River near the Hilton, a Fairfield Inn (Lafayette's second) is being built. According to Lafayette real estate agents, there are three different companies considering hotels along Kaliste Saloom Rd. 5) Stirling Lafayette Shopping Center There has been talk about this shopping center in this thread, but there has been some recent developments. According to the ePackage on Stirling Properties' website, most of the shopping center is filled with tenants already. Those tenants include: Target, JCPenney, Lane Bryant/Cacique, Maurice's, Hibbett Sports, Ross Dress for Less, Rack Room Shoes, Marshall's, Old Navy, GameStop, Cingular, Quizno's, Guitar Center, Office Depot, Petco, Starbucks, Wendy's, Chick-Fil-A, Capital One Bank, and Chili's. The Target, JCPenney, Lane Bryant, Ross, Rack Room Shoes, Hibbett, Marshall's, Old Navy, GameStop, Cingular, Quizno's, Office Depot, Starbucks, Wendy's, Chick-Fil-A, Capital One, and Chili's are Lafayette's second or more location(s). Guitar Center, Maurice's, and Petco would all be new to the Lafayette market. And I'm sure there will be more developments to come!