Roy hopes coffeehouse will make development perk up

CC’s Coffeehouse and Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt franchises are scheduled to open in Morgan City around April 1, pending all things construction-wise come together smoothly and in a timely manner.

The strip mall, which will house a total of six businesses, is being built on La. 70 by Sidney Roy Contractors. The contracting business also owns Royal Management Group, which is the franchisee of CC’s Coffeehouse.

Orange Leaf of Louisiana is the franchisee of Orange Leaf yogurt business.

Four spaces remain available for other businesses at the strip mall.

“We’re still in the works with some other franchises that I can’t elaborate on yet,” Roy said. “But we are negotiating with some as of now. We have a prospect at one site but we’re looking for a franchisee. They approved the site. They want to be there.”

Attracting franchise businesses to Morgan City can be a challenge.

“The biggest problem that we’re having is in Morgan City,” Roy said. “And I’m not saying anything against it.”

Over the years, businesses say Morgan City is too small and the demographics for setting up shop in the area is not the right fit.

“We’ve spoken with Chili’s, Cane’s, and we’ve spoken with Chick-fil-A and they don’t want to come here because of the demographics,” Roy said.

“With that being said, even CC’s didn’t want to come here until we were able to get them to come on the property. And once we got them on the property, they loved the site and approved the site almost immediately.”

The city has great potential for generating revenues if businesses will take the risk.

“The site is good,” Roy said. “The location is fantastic. It’s just a matter of getting some franchises in here. I think once we get a couple of franchises in here and open the doors, I think more will come.

“Not necessarily saying more will come where I’m at but I think we’ll eventually see maybe a Cane’s or a Chick-fil-A or something of that nature that will take a risk in Morgan City.”

“He’s done a tremendous job of attracting new business into our city, taking advantage of the Walmart construction at a time when things are stagnant,” said Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi. “It’s nice to see new construction in our city.

“So, we still have people with confidence in our economy that it’s going to rebound.”

Roy states there is a need for more businesses to come to Morgan City.

“There’s a need for Morgan City to have more diversity in the things that we have here to give people a different choice and not have to go to Houma to go get anything,” Roy said.

“Everybody wants to go to Houma to go shop and out to eat and do everything else.”

Although creating businesses in the area is an investment for Roy, he wants residents to be able to shop right at home.

“We’re doing it to try to advance the betterment of Morgan City to get more things into town to where people want to sit and say, ‘You know I don’t need to go to Houma to do this and that. I can do that right here in Morgan City.’

“And with that being said, I think it also draws more people in from the Pierre Part and Belle River area, which is what the Walmart has done already.”

New businesses bring more tax dollars in the city.

“I’ve been in Morgan City 38 years,” Roy said. “All I’ve ever heard is we’re going to develop, we’re going to develop, we’re going to develop.

But “for 38 years, we have developed nothing for the most part. In the past four years, we’ve probably had more development than we’ve had in 20 years.”

All it takes is a risk.

“We can’t get anything to come in if somebody doesn’t step out and take a risk on it,” Roy said. “Then we’re never going to get anything here. So, I guess I’m the guinea pig.”

Roy also owns the strip mall that houses Advanced Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation and Anytime Fitness on Elm Street in Morgan City.

Applications for workers at CC’s Coffeehouse will be available around February. There is no information regarding the availability of applications for the yogurt shop.