LMR_January_FINAL

How Grand Cane Transformed Nuisance
Structures Into Thriving Local Businesses
NEIL T. ERWIN, J.D., NEIL ERWIN LAW, LLC
The Big Problem
Few things are worse in a small town with big ideas than
having attractive historic buildings in the municipal core
that an absentee owner just let sit and rot.
This was the big problem faced by the Village of
Grand Cane (pop. 242), one of the more prosperous
municipalities in its region of DeSoto Parish, 35 miles south
of Shreveport, after the 1995 acquisition by an absentee
owner of three buildings in the village’s Historic District.
The claim was that the owner would use the buildings
in an antique furniture restoration business, but in fact
it became a hoarding space used to pile junk into the
buildings as unmaintained, unproductive warehouses.
Promises made to put the buildings into active use were
never kept. Legal demands for action were met with
shuffling of some items of furniture out, only to have other
junk moved back in. This behavior led to wasted time,
expense, and frustration.
The Vision
With the turn of the new century, Grand Cane evolved
and started thinking big. Its Back Alley Community
Theater, founded in 2001, became a focus of pride and
high attendance for its top-quality live theater and musical
performances. The village and civic volunteers started
taking advantage of Louisiana Government Assistance
Program (LGAP) grants to, step-by-step, enclose and
improve the theater.
In 2006, Denzel Washington and Hollywood came to town
to film the true story of “The Great Debaters,” a movie set
in 1935 showing how the historically-black Wiley College
debaters took on Harvard, with Grand Cane’s school
making a perfect period movie set.
In 2008, the Haynesville Shale natural gas boom brought
new prosperity to the area, along with demand for new
restaurants and shops in Grand Cane. The village found
ready tenants for a building it owned in the Historic
District, but the three junk storage buildings stood still,
clouding the glow.
The Big Idea
Mayor Marsha Richardson was elected in 2010. Coming
from a successful business background, she decided it was
time to act. Supported by Board of Aldermen members
Rhonda Meek, Mike Rives, and Bill Cook, the village knew
through legal action it could force the owner of the
three buildings to maintain his structures and, through a
new zoning ordinance, stop the use of the buildings for
warehousing. Legally, the village also knew that it could
not force the owner to use the buildings for what was
needed most, which was retail shops.
They either could sit empty as long as
the owner paid the negligible property
taxes or, if unmaintained, be torn down
leaving a gap like missing teeth in the
Historic District.
Instead, the village took the bold
step of buying the structures in 2015
for a price, high but fair under the
circumstances, which the owner
finally couldn’t refuse. The funds
providentially were available from the
village’s Haynesville Shale proceeds from leases under
village-owned property but it, like other municipalities,
could have borrowed the money with state approval or
voted on a bond issue.
The Village then used LGAP grants starting in 2014-15 to
renovate the buildings, one at a time, to which general
municipal funds were added. The renovation cost of the
largest building, Cook-Douglas, was $121,440.00. It now
houses a local business tenant, Southern Thoughtfulness,
which handles both retail sales and consignment booths.
Southern Thoughtfulness store window, Grand Cane
Mayor Marsha
Richardson
The neighboring building, Wilson, went from junk
warehouse to retail gift shop for a renovation cost of
$49,914. It also is leased by a local business tenant,
Magnolia Mercantile (see before and after).
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LMR | January 2019