Business & Technology

The cost of land along Veterans Memorial Boulevard — east Jefferson Parish's main commercial corridor —has reached historic highs indicating a strong retail market, according to SRSA Commercial Real Estate of Metairie.

SRSA partner Donald Schwarcz tells New Orleans CityBusiness his figures show the strip's most valuable property costs as much as $60 per square foot, six times as much as land in eastern New Orleans, four times the cost along Lapalco Boulevard in west Jefferson and nearly twice as much as the most expensive commercial areas of St. Tammany Parish.

Two oil company landmen have an off-hours business in Broussard as the Rank Wildcat Spirits Distillery, crafting a rum they named Sweet Crude.

The Advertiser reports that 26-year-old Cole Leblanc welded the still together, and 35-year-old David Meaux — who also is a lawyer — dealt with all the paperwork.

They monitor the distilling, they bottle and label the rum, and even went to a sugar refinery and shoveled 1,600 pounds of raw sugar into huge barrels to bring back to Broussard.