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The city of Central has acquired over 350 acres between Wax and Hooper roads for its Mainstreet 2030 project, designed to improve the quality of life for Central residents and create a downtown identity.
The city purchased 356 acres from Central City Investment Group LLC for $5.7 million, according to a deal filed Friday with the East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court’s office. The investment group is led by M’Elaine Jumonville Wright and Ryan Jumonville. The Jumonville family owns Louisiana Dental Plan, and Ryan Jumonville is chairman of United Networks of America, one of the nation’s largest providers of value added managed care products and services.
Ryan Jumonville represented the seller and Central Mayor Wade Evans represented the city.
Evans tells Daily Report a critical component of the project is the major flood control efforts along Beaver Bayou. The project also creates a downtown Main Street for the city along Sullivan Road. Other aspects include a multi-use arena and an indoor sports facility/emergency shelter.
“The city has spent copious amounts of time and money over the last 19 years on plans and we’ve never implemented any of them,” Evans says. “We took all our plans and said, ‘Where can we implement this?’ The most reasonable location based on the availability of property and the centralized location was to create our city center along that corridor of Sullivan Road and anchor in the northern end of our city center with the governmental buildings.”
Evans says site work started on the new City Hall two weeks ago. The corner of Wax and Sullivan roads near the Shoe Creek development will be the southern anchor of the development plan.
