Lafayette office park caters to small business

LAFAYETTE — ?I’ve always wanted a little office park,? said Lon L’Heureux of his vision for the Westgate Office Park in Lafayette. As the owner, he has a lot invested in the 10-acre parcel of land.

Westgate opened in June. Its first building has walls, windows and even a parking lot, but what it doesn’t have yet is tenants.

The 10-acre office park is planned eventually to include nine buildings at an average of 6,300 square feet per building, and even has room for another six buildings above the original campus. Right now, though, L’Heureux would be happy to fill his office park’s one completed building.

?It seems like all it would take is one or two good tenants that occupy quite a bit of space,? said Tom Hill of Wright-Kingdom Realtors, who is representing Westgate. ?If we had two tenants in here that occupied the entire first floor, it would take off.?

Initial lease rates start at $16.25 per square foot, and Hill estimates the triple net rate will end up around $5 per square foot.

Hill is spending three afternoons a week holding an open house at the office park’s completed building. He indicated that Lon L’Heureux is being cautious about his construction schedule.

?Usually, you’d build two of these buildings at a time, but until we get this one occupied, Lon feels like there’s no sense in gambling,? said Hill, who started showing the property in June. L’Heureux said he would break ground on the second building as soon as leases are signed for the first one, but that the glut of office space on the market has slowed down his construction schedule.

It was Hill who sold not only the land, but also the idea, to L’Heureux. Hill also worked with Spectrum Properties to build the Fairway Crossing office park in Gunbarrel. Both parks have a similar concept: providing a more comfortable office environment for smaller, professional users.

?I told Lon that I believe in this concept. I’ve marketed it, and I’ve seen it work,? said Hill. ?We want to make the user of smaller offices a lot more comfortable because a lot of these people are just buried in the larger office buildings.?

The users Hill is targeting need spaces of 800 square feet or larger. That market includes a wide range of traditional professionals, including accountants, attorneys and dentists. Hill, however, also is envisioning more eclectic professionals such as practitioners of holistic medicine or psychiatrists, many of whom see patients at night. He also can see a small market for company reps who serve large, nearby corporations such as Sun Microsystems.

?Our niche has always been the smaller users, which has been good in the down economy,? said Vicki Trumbo, executive director of the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, who said that Westgate fits well into the Lafayette community. ?The smaller users are here, and they’re not going to be laying off 300 people tomorrow. They’re pretty solid, basic companies that tend to stay and grow rather than leave and go somewhere else.?

Hill said Westgate’s nine buildings will allow smaller users to grow with the community.

?A small tenant can start in here with 800 square feet, and the next thing you know, he’s growing. If he suddenly needs 3,000 square feet, we’ll have it for him,? said Hill, who noted that L’Heureux is designing each building depending on the tenant’s needs. ?The unique thing about this property is that you can come out and tailor-make the space for yourself.?

The office park also boasts T-1 connectivity, 2,200 square feet of basement storage in each building, and a campus with a residential feel. Other pleasures are less obvious.

?You can open a window. You can’t do that in a big office building,? said Hill, who noted that such a small feature can significantly reduce a tenant’s utility costs. ?It’s unique in that people can have something that is just a little more functional than what you have in those big buildings.?

The city of Lafayette is working with the developers on the project. Eventually the city will install a stoplight at the park’s entrance on South Boulder Road, according to Hill.

?Any time you have a well-designed office park and you get tenants in there, it makes an impact throughout the whole community,? said Trumbo, who indicated that developers in Lafayette have been building to suit smaller users for some time. ?Lafayette is a growing city with lots of opportunities, but we’re still small enough that we really appreciate the people who are here. We’re smaller, and so that allows us to do things a little more personally.?

L’Heureux, whose son will be supervising the project, is prepared for the long-term nature of the project.

?I think when we look down the road five years, we’ll be very happy with it. It should be built out by then, easily.?

on Facebook on LinkedIn