Business News

Georges still putting millions into Advocate

by Leslie Turk

Daily paper constructing new digs near production plant on Rieger Road at Siegen Lane, near I-10.

Design by Remson|Haley|Herpin Architects

Lafayette's Lemoine Company was awarded the contract to construct The Advocate's new BR headquarters.

Lafayette-based The Lemoine Company (No. 8 on ABiz's list of the Top 50 Private Companies in the region) has been awarded the contract to build a new corporate headquarters in Baton Rouge for The Advocate, the paper businessman John Georges and his wife Dathel purchased in 2013 and have since spent millions more expanding. The Georges never disclosed the purchase price and have not said how many million of dollars they have put into it since.

The daily paper announced Tuesday that the new headquarters will be constructed on a now-vacant lot fronting the paper's production plant on Rieger Road at Siegen Lane, near Interstate 10.

The story, which did not disclose the cost of the HQ project, notes that the three-story, 48,500- square-foot building will house the newsroom of the Baton Rouge Advocate, as well as the business offices for all three of The Advocate's daily papers and its growing number of weekly papers.

Groundbreaking is scheduled for Nov. 1 and the building should be complete in early 2016. Since 2005 the company has had its headquarters on the Bluebonnet Boulevard campus of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries.

Remson|Haley|Herpin Architects designed the building.

Read the story here and more about the Georges' "big gamble" here.