LSU purchases 60 acres *** Property near South Campus on GSRI Avenue

LSU has extended its land holdings in south Baton Rouge by buying 60 acres near its existing 153-acre South Campus on GSRI Avenue.

The LSU Property Foundation paid $6 million for the sugar cane fields it bought from Steinbach LLC in a deal that closed late last week. The property begins at the Nicholson Drive-GSRI intersection and moves southward.

While the university has no immediate plans for the property, it's an acquisition strategy that keeps LSU's options open as it expands offices and programs at the South Campus, said Baton Rouge attorney Charles Landry, who is the LSU Foundation's chairman-elect. The LSU Property Foundation is a land-holding affiliate of the nonprofit, fundraising LSU Foundation.

Bill Bowdon, president of the foundation, couldn't be reached for comment, but Landry said the foundation bought the land to benefit LSU and its capacity needs down the road.

"The thought is that at some point it would be used to augment South Campus facilities, but there's been no decision on how or when that may be developed," said David Hardy, the LSU Property Foundation's attorney.

In all, LSU sprawls over more than 2,000 acres in south Baton Rouge, including the main campus.

The new 60 acres isn't far north of the property where Pinnacle Entertainment is seeking to develop a casino and where developer Mike Wampold plans mixed-used development on the lower end of Bluebonnet Boulevard. Rapid commercial development could have made it more difficult and expensive for LSU to acquire the land in the future.

At $100,000 an acre, the latest transaction indicates an appreciation of property values along Nicholson Drive. Nearly four years ago, the state agreed to pay the same price - $6 million - but got the 153 acres and 13 buildings on the South Campus. That deal was a complex one, leveraged by an agreement from Albemarle Corp., the seller, to maintain at least a $38 million annual payroll in the state for 10 years, something the company easily has exceeded so far.

The earlier South Campus sale - at about $39,200 an acre - took place in phased transactions in 2004 and 2005. In October, Pinnacle Entertainment paid $20.9 million for 508 acres in the River Road-Gardere Lane area near Nicholson Drive, or about $41,100 an acre.

Earlier this year, LSU's vice chancellor for research and economic development, Brooks Keel, said recruiting private industry to the South Campus in research partnerships is a possibility, and Maj. Gen. Hunt Downer said the Louisiana National Guard wants to build a 50-acre joint readiness center at the South Campus, something it could do in conjunction with the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps.

All of that could fit on the existing 153-acre LSU South Campus, where about 25 acres has been developed to date.

Current South Campus facilities include the Louisiana Business and Technology Center, which includes an incubator of emerging businesses and LSU's Small Business Development Center; the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training, a counter-terrorism training site; and the Center for BioModular Multi-Scale Systems.

That center, known as CBM² , focuses on applications of tiny plastic and metal structures in technology and has as a partner, the Center for Advanced Microstructures. LSU officials have said that moving CAMD from Jefferson Highway - where Corporate Boulevard and Towne Center commercial growth is converging on its site - might be necessary, with a move to the South Campus among the possibilities.

After Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans-based LSU Dental School temporarily moved to the South Campus in 2005 and conducted more than 25,000 patient visits before returning to New Orleans in September.