A Baton Rouge-based real estate firm, Beau Box Commercial Real Estate, announced last week that a large number of Greensboro properties belonging to Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization (HERO) are going up for sale. The full listing, which includes Main Street commercial properties and homes in the Yerby Branch subdivision, can be found online.
The asking price for all 12 properties is a cool $1,835,000, according to the website. Listings for the properties appear to have gone live on July 20, while Beau Box announced the listing via an emailed press release the following day, Thursday, July 21. The listed properties are also available for sale individually.
The web listing identifies Bill Ogburn and Chase Moulder, both Florida-licensed real estate agents, as the listing contacts for the property.
Ogburn said this week that the firm had received offers on some of the properties individually, mostly from local buyers or current HERO tenants. The firm hopes to sell the entire portfolio together, Ogburn said.
In a comment on the Watchman’s Facebook page, Ogburn said HERO’s board had dictated the asking price.
HERO, a nonprofit which has operated in Hale County for many decades, was described by one person close to the situation as having had a “rocky” last few years. Businesses downtown complained privately of strained relations with the property management firm HERO engaged to manage its tenant relationships. Some tenants have reported receiving notice that the buildings they occupied were in danger of foreclosure.
The properties HERO has amassed over the years include numerous downtown commercial properties, notably the former Pie Lab building, now the home of Sakura Hibachi Sushi; two neighboring Main Street properties currently occupied by the Aaron Sanders Head Gallery and Stone Fruit Woodworks; the Angela Morrison Law Office building on Wheelan Street; the old theater building that currently houses a thrift shop at the corner of Main and Tuscaloosa Street; the former school building on Wheelan Street now occupied by Abadir’s Kitchen; the daycare facility on North Street; and the HERO Bunkhouse on Market Street.
The listed properties also include four homes HERO developed in the Yerby Branch subdivision, namely the homes nicknamed “Suspension House,” “Bridge House,” “Doll House,” and “the Cabin.”
“We are excited about the opportunity to market a historic portfolio in Greensboro,” said BBCRE President & CEO Beau Box in the company’s press release. “This is a rare opportunity to acquire such a substantial portion of a downtown area that has so much character.”
The press release describes Beau Box Commercial Real Estate as “one of Louisiana’s highest grossing commercial firms, [which] has offices in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, New Orleans, as well as in Pensacola, Florida.”
