Author: magraham

Sold: Flowerama / 403 Thomas Road
Seller: James and Patricia Heard
Buyer: Wiggins Real Estate LLC
Price: $400,000
Date: 11/27/2013
Land Area: 0.38 acres (Source: MLS)
Improvement Size: 2,000 square feet (Source: MLS)
Source: Conveyance Record
Disclaimer: All of the above information is for reference only and should not be relied upon without proper verification.

Sold:  Corner of Arkansas and Kiroli Road / West Monroe, LA

Sold: Vacant lot next to Regions Bank on North 18th Street in Monroe / Corner of North 18th and Avenue of America
Seller: Cavender Enterprise Leasing Family, LLC
Buyer: Campco of Monroe Inc.
Price: $565,000
Date: 11/14/2013
Land Area: 1.33 acres or 58,000 square feet (source: Owner)
Legal: Lot 1 Regions Subdivision
Source: Conveyance record
Disclaimer: All of the above information is for reference only and should not be relied upon for proper verification.

Sold: Multi-tenant retail center / 2601 N. 7th Street
Seller: Braxton Properties, LLC
Buyer: JH of Ouachita, LLC
Price: $980,000
Date: 10/24/2013
Land Area: 0.709 acres (source:  MLS / conveyance record)  
Improvement Size: 8,400 square feet (source:  MLS)
Source: Conveyance record

Sold:  Multi-tenant strip center across from the Waterfront Grill 

Source:  Legal Recorder, Clerk of Court documents

Sold:  Family Dollar Store / 3002 Cypress Street

Engineering firm grows WM location

Ford, Bacon and Davis has doubled local workforce

By
Greg Hilburn

ghilburn@thenewsstar.com

International engineering firm Ford, Bacon & Davis barely finished a
50-job expansion at its West Monroe headquarters before announcing yet another
one this summer.

Michael Cruse, a senior vice president based in Greenville, S.C., said the
company is recruiting 25 more engineers, project managers, designers and
project support personnel to its operation in Richland Tower.

“We’ve almost doubled our workforce since we announced our last expansion
last fall,” said Cruse, who is a University of Louisiana at Monroe graduate.

Ford, Bacon and Davis moved to the five-floor Richland Tower in 2012,
leasing two full floors and expanding the parking lot. It has since leased a
third floor and part of a fourth.

“It gives us room for 175 people, and if we do some reconfiguring of space I
believe we could end up with 200 sometime next year,” he said. “At that point
we may have to look for more space somewhere else, but that would be a good
problem because it would mean our business growth remains strong.”

Cruse, who began his career with the firm in Monroe in 1979, said the
company continues to see significant growth in its power, renewable energy,
industrial power, specialty chemical and pulp and paper sectors.

“Personnel in the West Monroe location are supporting projects from
California to Florida,” he said. “Our clients are spending more capital.”

He said the company’s Richland Tower location has “helped revitalize our
business here. Our clients like the location and it’s helped us recruit
talent,” he said.

Cruse said the firm prefers hiring local talent, “but the pool of applicants
from the market has been minimal, so we’re having to bring people in from
outside the area,” he said. “We’re working with the local universities to try
to find as much local talent as possible.”

Ford, Bacon & Davis has a long history in the market, opening its first
local office in Monroe in 1931.

The firm once moved its world headquarters here briefly to Jackson Street in
Monroe, where it employed as many as 600 in the 1980s.

Ford, Bacon & Davis downsized its local staff in the 1990s, but had
continued to maintain a minimum workforce until beginning a series of
expansions in 2011.

Sold: Vacant land next to Basic / Home Depot center