BATON ROUGE - There's no more vacancy at two hotels on S. Acadian Thruway. The Louisiana Workers' Compensation Corp. has purchased the Red Roof Inn and La Quinta Inn near S. Acadian Thruway and I-10.

The plan, for now, is to demolish them both. A demo crew has already started tearing down one of them.

The non-profit insurance company says it was approached by both hotels separately. It acquired La Quinta Inn last November and closed on the sale of Red Roof Inn Monday.

"We saw it as an opportunity to invest in a major corridor in Baton Rouge. There's a lot of traffic that goes through here, and protect the property that's adjacent to our home office," LWCC Chief Marketing Officer Seth Irby said.

LWCC's office is at the corner of S. Acadian Thruway and Bawell Street. The building is currently going through its own renovations.

The hotel properties are also behind Mestizo Louisiana Mexican Cuisine where restaurant owner and chef Jim Urdiales has invested for 15 years. He tells WBRZ he's interested to see what the site becomes.

"I think what they're trying to do is something really great for this area that will help maintain the cleanliness for this area and have it for future growth," Urdiales said.

The salvageable furniture at both hotel locations has been removed and donated. LWCC says it'll work to demolish and clear the site for the next few months. A decision about what's next for that location is still being decided.

"It's really too early to say," Irby said. "Our focus has been acquiring the properties and working on the demolition, and we'll look at that in the coming months."