ST. GEORGE, La. (WAFB) – St. George is getting a shopping center in the next few years that will be almost twice the size of the Mall of Louisiana.

It’s spearheaded by Joshua Davis, the owner of Louisiana Firearms, and his business partner. Around five years ago, conversations with customers sparked an idea.

“A lot of St. George residents are customers of mine currently, and they would always say, ‘Hey, you know, we need a shopping center, a big shopping center down in St. George. We hate going through all the traffic to get to Baton Rouge to have nice restaurants and have nice shopping. We would love to have, you know, that in our own city,’” Davis said.

That idea turned into a plan for a 33-acre development in St. George at the corner of Highland and Airline called “The Highline.” It’ll combine with another development next-door already in the beginning phases and one across the street, making it around 160 total acres. Davis calls it a Perkins Rowe 2.0.

“We have a restaurant district, we have a shopping district, and we have a government and an office district in the development. We’re currently trying to get different local government agencies to move in, to rent, to build, whatever we could do to help them really get the city up and running,” Davis said.

Once completed, Davis says The Highline will be the biggest development in East Baton Rouge Parish. So far, he says the St. George community likes the idea.

“Everyone wants a development in St. George so they don’t have to drive to Baton Rouge, more restaurants near where they live. One of the biggest advantages we have, we are not a development that borders or is really close to any residential developments. A lot of these big developments that come in, they get a lot of pushback from because they’re right next to a neighborhood. We’re very fortunate. We’re lucky we don’t have that issue, so really that hasn’t been a factor. We haven’t seen any pushback from that aspect, so I would say that was my biggest concern going into it, but we really haven’t had anyone complain about it just because it’s not close to any neighborhoods,” Davis said.

Davis says the concerns he has heard are all related to the potential traffic increase in the area, but he says his team designed the development with that in mind.

“It should actually enhance the traffic in the area because of the Antioch extension that will be going through the development, so really, it should help with congestion rather than hurt it,” Davis said.

The development is broken down into phases. Davis says phase one is about to start within the next few months and will be complete by Summer 2026. It’ll include a two-acre town square, the Louisiana Firearms complex as the anchor business, and a connection to Airline Highway.

Developers have spaces for lease in the center. If you are interested or want to learn more, click here: https://www.experiencethehighline.com/

Click here to report a typo. Please include the headline.

Click here to subscribe to our WAFB 9 News daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.

Copyright 2024 WAFB. All rights reserved.