The former Conn’s property on Airline Highway has changed hands, with the buyer planning to lease the building to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office. Local investor Michael Divincenti Jr. purchased the property at 8888 Airline Highway from Ohio-based STNL Development for $4.5 million, ac cording to a deal filed Monday with the East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court’s office. The site includes a roughly 53,000-square-foot building and has been vacant since late 2024 after Conn’s vacated the space as part of a nationwide shutdown of all 170 of its retail locations across 15 Southern states. The company previously operated two stores in the Baton Rouge area. Steve Legendre and Justin Langlois of Stirling Properties brokered the deal for the seller. Legendre says the transaction underscores the limited supply of buildings of comparable size and quality currently available on the market. “It’s hard to find buildings of that quality that you can buy at that price—you certainly can’t build it for that,” Legendre says. “Given the location, the quality of construction and the size of the building, there just aren’t a whole lot of them out there.” A lease agreement filed with the clerk of court shows the building’s 51,888 square feet of usable space will be leased to the state for use by the elections division as a warehouse. The lease runs through Jan. 31, 2028, with two six-month option terms. ...read more read less