BATON ROUGE - A neighborhood family restaurant owner says he's submitted a proposal to occupy his old location, following a devastating fire and lease termination by the building's management.

Dearman's owner, David Van Gelder, says he's submitted renderings and a proposal to the manager of Bocage Village Shopping Center.

In a statement sent to WBRZ Van Gelder says, "For more than 58 years Dearman's has been a part of Baton Rouge's history, its culture and family memories. The Dearman's team has been overwhelmed by and grateful for the outpouring of support from our loyal multi-generational patrons. We want to be a rich part of Baton Rouge's future, in our original home, but it is not up to us."

Shopping center manager Mitch Richardson says Dearman's is in the running among a number of other different concepts and proposals for the location on Jefferson Highway.

"We have had conversations with him, he's in the hunt," said Richardson.

No word on when a tenant decision will be made, since the shopping center is still in the process of recovering following a fire at Dearman's, February 29. Richardson says some of the other tenants are repairing their stores from smoke damage.

"We're tied up with getting our building back," Richardson told WBRZ. "We have to repair the roof and a lot of other work to do still."

Up until the fire, Dearman's had been at the Jefferson Hwy location since 1958.