Restaurant, hotel among developments in Amelia

The Morgan City Industrial Park in Amelia is a retail center featuring a restaurant, hotel and plans for additional development.
Rick Robards, developer of Cajun Way Plaza, said the Subway there will soon be accompanied by a Huddle House restaurant. Negotiations are ongoing with other potential tenants for the seven remaining suites ranging in size from 1,150 square feet to 10,000 square feet, he said.
Robards said the plaza is part of the larger Morgan City Industrial Park — a 200-acre development along Lake Palourde Bypass Road owned by Jack Kent — consisting of America’s Best Value Inn (Amelia Extended Stay) and businesses like McDonalds, Chevron, Circle K and the Dollar General store.
Additionally, developers are in talks with several larger companies to build on the undeveloped land in the vicinity, he said.
“Within the next year, you’ll see a large, large change here,” Robards said.
Investors were interested in developing Amelia because “We feel like the next 10 to 20 years in the gulf will be very active and good for business in the Morgan City and Amelia area … We feel like this area has long been in need of services for its residents and now is the time to do it,” Robards said.
Parish Councilman Sterling Fryou, who represents the Amelia area, said the development is “a shot in the arm for Amelia.”
He noted that Subway is full all the time.
“They’ve got so much industry over here, and there’s not a lot of places you can go to eat at 12 o’clock … we probably need some more restaurants,” Fryou said.
Located within the Cajun Way Plaza retail center, Subway opened for business three months ago and has quickly become one of the top producing Subways in its territory, stated a news release from America’s Best Value Inn.
Ella Rebardi-Stanley, America’s Best Value Inn general manager, said in a news release that the hotel is a 124-room, four-story hotel geared primarily for the extended stay guest, but nightly rates are also available. The hotel has been open for about a year. As the only extended stay-type hotel in the area, the American Best Value Inn has done extremely well and has run the highest occupancy of any hotel in the entire region, Rebardi-Stanley said.
Huddle House just signed a letter of intent to open a restaurant in the Cajun Way Plaza retail center in Amelia, Rebardi-Stanley said. Huddle House is one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in the country, and will offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner in a full service “sit down” type restaurant, she said. Construction is expected to begin in the spring 2014 and the restaurant should be open by mid to late summer 2014, Rebardi-Stanley said.
“Cajun Way Plaza is definitely a plus for Amelia because we’ve got the hotel that houses some of the workers, and the place to eat is a really good place too, that sandwich shop. It does nothing but good for the area,” Fryou said.