BATON ROUGE —  A former shopping mall-turned technology center located on Baton Rouge's Florida Boulevard has been sold to a South Carolina-based company, Beau Box Real Estate announced Tuesday (Dec. 1).

The Bon Carré Technology Center, a 712,000 square foot office and technology park that occupies 7337 Florida Boulevard, is now the property of a firm called EdgePWR. The company's website describes itself as team that is "focused on sale-leaseback, acquisitions and build-to-suit transactions of real property, serving as an infrastructure partner to data center operators to unlock equity and enable them to focus on their core offerings to their customers."

According to The Advocate, EdgePWR's out-of-state homebase in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, will not prevent it from working closely with Baton Rouge community leaders to redevelop the property.

“Every community leader we met with had a story about Bon Carré,” said Jim La Marche, a principal with EdgePWR. “It’s a meaningful property for the city and our hope here is to amplify it and make it a focal point of the city again.”

Originally developed in the 1960’s as Bon Marche Mall, the large property was the capital city's first enclosed shopping mall and eventually became a high-density office park that was renamed Bon Carré.

The 43-acre property now serves as a business hub for a number of local and national companies. Current renters include Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, Turner Industries, Venyu, H&E Equipment Services, Capital Area Human Services, the Louisiana Department of Health, and the Baton Rouge Police Department. 

EdgePWR did not wish to disclose the property's purchase amount, according to Beau Box Real Estate, but did reveal that part of its plans for the business center include creating more natural light in the building and adding green space.

That said, the firm's representatives reiterated that the majority of decisions related to Bon Carré redevelopment will be in the hands of the community.

“The building belongs to Baton Rouge,” La Marche said.