A sprawling logistics and industrial park could be coming to a 217-acre tract at 18510 Samuels Road in Zachary, where Indianapolis-based developer Ambrose is pitching a project that could eventually span roughly 3 million square feet. The East Baton Rouge Parish Planning Commission is set to weigh in on the proposal in December, putting a years-long rezoning saga back in front of local officials.
What Ambrose Is Proposing
According to The Advocate, the Planning Commission will consider Ambrose's plans for the massive logistics and industrial park in December. The site sits a few miles north of the East Baton Rouge Parish North Landfill, and a company brochure cited by the paper describes a project that could accommodate three buildings ranging from about 100,000 square feet to more than 1.5 million square feet. Ambrose markets the park as a build-to-suit development geared toward local and regional distribution, manufacturing or assembly work, with access to Interstate 10, Interstate 12 and the Port of Greater Baton Rouge.
Ambrose is no stranger to the region's industrial scene. The company developed a 554,000-square-foot warehouse for the First Solar manufacturing facility in New Iberia, which it sold in 2026, the same report notes. Ambrose's own property listing describes that New Iberia project as a Class A distribution hub built with 40 docks, 36 trailer spaces, 80 auto parking spots and 150-foot truck courts, according to Ambrose Property Group. At a March 17, 2025 hearing on the Samuels Road proposal, a representative for the company told commissioners, “We develop nationwide, and the product we develop is e-commerce, distribution type warehousing,” while also noting at the time that, “We haven't submitted any site plan documents,” according to a Baton Rouge Planning and Zoning Commission meeting video.
A Tangled Zoning Timeline
The path to December's hearing has not been straightforward. The proposal originally sought to shift the property's future land-use designation from Agricultural Rural to Employment Center and rezone it from Rural to Light Industrial M1, per the same meeting video. Planning Commission staff recommended approval of the plan amendment at that March 2025 hearing and indicated the related zoning change met applicable criteria if the land-use amendment went through.
Accounts of what happened next diverge. The Advocate's reporting states that the Planning Commission approved Ambrose's request to rezone the property in March 2025. But footage from a separate Baton Rouge Metropolitan Council zoning meeting video from March 19, 2025, shows the council approving a 60-day deferral on the proposed comprehensive-plan amendment and rezoning for the Samuels Road property, with a clerk stating simply, “Motion carries. Item six.” The two records have not been reconciled publicly, and it's not clear from available evidence how the discrepancy will factor into the Planning Commission's upcoming review.
Industrial Market Still Squeezed
Whatever the procedural history, Ambrose's pitch lands in a Baton Rouge industrial market that has stayed historically tight. Metro Baton Rouge's warehouse vacancy rate is just over 4%, and that shortage has kept companies from moving into the market and local businesses from expanding, according to Evan Scroggs of Lee & Associates, as cited in the seed reporting. Scroggs said demand for industrial space remains strong across the Southeastern United States, and that the region has been held back by a lack of available industrial space for the past few years.
Those figures track with a broader market snapshot: Baton Rouge's industrial vacancy rate stood at 4.38% at the end of 2025, up from 2.91% a year earlier but still well below the national average of roughly 7.6%, per Business Report. Total industrial inventory reached about 38.7 million square feet by the end of 2025, with net absorption staying positive even as leasing activity slowed, the outlet reported. Since 2013, annual absorption in the metro has consistently outpaced new construction deliveries, leaving what Business Report described as a structural deficit — and excluding two large vacant properties, vacancy would sit closer to 3%.
Other Projects In The Pipeline
Ambrose's Zachary proposal would join a wave of industrial activity across the metro. Business Report's market overview pointed to several projects already underway or recently completed, including a 120,000-square-foot build-to-suit facility for U.S. AutoForce on Rieger Road, the completed 61 North Logistics Center on Tom Drive, Ferguson's 64,924-square-foot facility on Old Perkins Road and the 254,000-square-foot Rivermark 185 Building II. More than 700,000 square feet of industrial space could be absorbed in 2026 if pending leases close as expected, the outlet reported.
Down in Geismar, the 186-acre Magnolia Ridge Logistics Park — developed by Ratcliff Development and JRE Capital — recently completed infrastructure construction and received final plat approvals for 14 shovel-ready sites ranging from 2 to 16 acres, with developers saying the park could eventually include 2 million square feet of mixed-use industrial space, The Advocate has reported separately. Nationally, industrial vacancy is projected to peak around 2026 as supply and demand rebalance, but Scroggs said Baton Rouge's market is expected to stay comparatively tight even as that national shift plays out.
