Walton breaks ground on SUNO dormitories

The New Orleans Division of Walton Construction Co. LLC recently held the groundbreaking for the Southern University New Orleans Dormitories. The groundbreaking was held at the Lakefront project site in New Orleans with several Louisiana state representatives and United States congressional staffers attending.

This $37 million project is being built from the ground up, consisting of 19 separate buildings totaling 830,000 sq ft. Construction is scheduled to begin by Walton in August and will be completed in three phases by May 2010.

The Southern University New Orleans Dormitories will include three-story housing units for faculty and students with both four-bedroom and two-bedroom suites. The 19 buildings will be surrounded with sidewalks and irrigated landscaping.

Concrete parking lots will also be constructed on the east and west ends of the project.

The project team includes: owner, the State of Louisiana; general contractor, Walton Construction; and designers, VergesRome Architects, and Bani, Carville and Brown Architects.

Block Construction breaks ground on Cajun Industries’ project

Block Construction LLC of Baton Rouge has broken ground on a $2.1 million project for Cajun Industries LLC at the company’s main headquarters in Baton Rouge.

The anticipated completion of the project is February.

“This is the second expansion we’ve handled for Cajun in the past two years,” said Jason Keller, Block founder.

The project includes a complete ground-up, 10,000-sq-ft expansion that will tie into the existing two-story main building. The Baton Rouge Public Works and Industrial divisions of Cajun Constructors Inc., a subsidiary of Cajun Industries LLC, will occupy the extended space.

Washer Hill Lipscomb Architecture of Baton Rouge handles design for the project. Ragland, Aderman and Associates of Baton Rouge is the engineering firm.

Company hosts grand opening celebration of newest facility in Gonzales

Grainger, a local business-to-business distributor of facilities maintenance products, has announced plans to expand and enhance its operations throughout the Gulf region.

As part of this expansion, the company will revamp its distribution network by opening four new facilities, relocating another, and expanding and enhancing three existing facilities throughout the Gulf area.

The announcement was made during the grand opening celebration of Grainger’s new branch in Gonzales, La., located on Hwy. 30 near one of the state’s largest petrochemical corridors.

With its expansion, the company plans to increase its local workforce by approximately 35 percent and will increase the size of its distribution network in the area by about 80 percent to meet the needs of local customers. Additionally, the amount of locally tailored inventory will increase by approximately 56 percent.

Grainger’s new Gonzales location features a 2,500-sq-ft showroom. As part of the company’s commitment to the local community, Grainger presented a $500 donation to support the welding program at Louisiana Technical College Ascension Campus.

The company supports technical education programs across the country to help stem a pending shortage of skilled labor predicted by many industry experts.

Geoshack opens Baton Rouge store

GeoShack recently announced the opening of its new retail store in Baton Rouge, La.
The store will provide on-site sales, repairs and rentals at the new store, located at 11124 Cedar Park Ave., Suite F, Baton Rouge, La. 70809.

David Owen, machine control business unit manager, says, “Louisiana has a lot of opportunities for us. I’m excited to bring GeoShack’s experience and expertise in the machine control business to support the contractors in south Louisiana.”

GeoShack is a supplier of Topcon construction lasers, total stations, machine control systems and agricultural systems.

GeoShack is the retail division of GeoShack North America Inc., an organization with sales professionals, and technical service and support specialists in 16 major market areas in North America with over 120 employees.