Red River Bank finalizes purchase of Acadians-Perkins parcel for $901,000

Red River Bank’s much-anticipated purchase of a disputed half-acre parcel in the parking lot of Jon Claitor’s Acadian-Perkins Plaza shopping center was finalized yesterday evening. Following the Louisiana Supreme Court’s recent refusal to hear the long-running case between Claitor and Laurence Brooks, who is the seller of the parcel, Red River Bank acquired the tract, which is located on the corner of Perkins Road and South Acadian Thruway, for $901,000, according to records filed with the East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court.

As Daily Report has previously reported, Red River Bank has been waiting for the court case to make its way through the system before closing on the deal and beginning construction on a new 2,500-square-foot bank—its sixth branch in the Capital Region—which will be completed in 2015.

“It’s on the way to just about everything, making it the ideal location for a community bank,” Joanie Montelaro, the bank’s Baton Rouge area market president, says in a press release. “Our goal in everything we do is to make decisions locally and to make banking simpler. Those criteria intersect right here with Perkins Road and Acadian Thruway.”

Karen Boss, who in September of 2013 was named vice president and retail market manager of Red River Bank, will manage the new Baton Rouge branch. Grey Mullins of Grey Mullins Commercial Properties represented Red River Bank in the deal, while Beau Box Commercial Real Estate represented Brooks.

The lawsuit that delayed the acquisition—the agreement for which was signed almost a year ago—was initiated by Claitor, who alleged that because the parcel has remained vacant for over 20 years, Brooks could not claim the right to a servitude leading from Perkins Road to the parcel. Both the 19th Judicial District Court and the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Brooks, and the Supreme Court recently denied Claitor’s request for hearing.