For decades Gene Martin and his family kept the 20 acres just west of the Interstate 49 exit in Carencro mowed and manicured while commercial development sprung up all around it.
But even before Martin’s death in 2024, the unsolicited offers to buy the land came. Now, with his three daughters overseeing the property, the offers are more frequent.
Investors want to buy the highly visible property for commercial development in a city that since 2020 is the fastest-growing in Louisiana.
“We’ve had a lot of interest from people out of town,” said Melanie Martin LeBlanc, Martin’s middle daughter. “I know some guy — I can’t remember his name, there’s been so many — out of New Orleans kept calling for a little while. He said they were interested, but we’re not interested in selling.”
Interest in the property has the mayor and other officials there optimistic about the next phase of growth in a city that grew like no other in Louisiana. According to Census data released last month, Carencro’s population swelled by 41.7% between July 1, 2020 and July 1, 2025, growing by nearly 4,000 residents to a population of 13,224.
Already home to a strong retail base that straddles the I-49 exit, Carencro is becoming less a quiet suburb of Lafayette and more a vibrant small city. Home starts during that five-year span outpaced Youngsville and Broussard, and its median household income jumped by over 60% between 2019 and 2024, Census data shows.
City leaders, said Mayor Charlotte Stemmans Clavier, are investing in infrastructure to manage that growth, which is expected to continue. Since she took office in 2022, the number of homes under development has hovered around 1,500.
“I am not the biggest proponent of growth — I grew up in a small town that was absolutely a great place to grow up,” she said. “I didn’t want it to change much, but growth is happening and there’s nothing I can do about it. We are making every effort to make sure we do it correctly.”
The Martin property could be a way to facilitate that growth. The city, with its small sports complex, could use a hotel and more food options. A local quick-serve restaurant is in negotiations to build next to the Post Office, but the remainder of the lot is a blank slate.
LeBlanc and her sisters want to partner with a developer on the site and be involved in whatever gets built there. They are teaming with Sal Crifasi and Capstone Investment Partners to find a partner.
“Even before my dad passed away, we knew we wanted to do something,” LeBlanc said. “There’s tremendous potential for any future development at this point. We want to explore opportunities that would allow the property to flourish and also be something good for Carencro.”
Melanie Martin LeBlanc, left , is pictured with her father, Gene Martin, along with her sisters, from left, Sara Martin Angelle and Andrea Martin Riche.
courtesy
Moving to Carencro
The cost of a newly built home has been a big reason why people are moving to Carencro, said Jim Keaty, owner of Keaty Real Estate.
Many of the areas where houses are being built are classified as rural and do not require a down payment, and builders offer lower interest rates and generous promotions to facilitate a sale. Buyers can easily own a new home with a mortgage that’s often less than what they were paying in rent, he said.
In the 70520 zip code, which covers most of Carencro’s city limits, the median sale price for a home has been $216,000 or less since 2022, well below the $245,000 median for Lafayette Parish, according to data from Bill Bacque with Market Scope Consulting.
Builders DSLD and DR Horton have been active in Carencro for some time.
“I know there’s more developments they have slated,” Keaty said. “I’ve presented properties to them that I was thinking would be great properties, but they’re turning them down because they have so much product coming online in that area.”
The growth has changed the city’s demographics a bit, pushing the median household income up to $63,401, which is almost identical to that of Lafayette Parish as a whole.
That has yet to, however, push up spending the city. Total retail sales grew 38.5% between 2020 and 2025, but other municipalities had bigger hikes while sales across the parish rose 43.7%, according to data from the Lafayette Economic Development Authority.
To handle that residential surge, city officials have in recent years invested in infrastructure along with drainage, streets and parks, Clavier said. Among those projects is a $47 million sewer plant that will more than double the city’s capacity with the opportunity for expansion. City Hall will also be renovated.
City officials also used American Rescue Plan Act funding to begin replacing old cast iron water lines, some of which are over 100 years old that can sometimes send brown water into homes, she said.
“At the first meeting with engineers, they had a sample of the pipe and they told me not to touch it,” Clavier said. “Of course, I’m going to touch it. The rust on the inside was sticky, and I had to wash my hands three times to get it off.”
Now the city is hoping to attract more retail. One report done by Alabama-based Retail Strategies revealed Carencro could use more bars, medical outlets and hotels.
Construction of the second phase of the Center Square shopping center will begin soon, and the Walk-On’s next to it will open in July. Retail vacancies in Carencro are hard to find, said Clinton Shepard, a commercial real estate agent with Lee & Associates.
“I get a lot of people who are like, ‘Why don’t you get a hotel?’” Clavier said. “You just want a hotel if you’ve got family and friends or have a wedding. You end up going all the way to Opelousas or into Lafayette (to stay).”
Walk-On's is opening in Carencro next month, but the brand has had the city on its radar for over a decade.
Lafayette Parish is growing
All of Lafayette Parish, as well as the town of Maurice in neighboring Vermilion Parish, has grown in that five-year span, putting the area at odds with every other metro area in the state that is shedding people, data shows.
The parish gained just under 16,000 people in that span, outpacing St. Tammany Parish for the biggest gain in the state.
Homes sales so far this year are strong and ahead of last year’s pace, and the number of luxury home sales has pushed the average sale price to over $300,000, Bacque’s data shows.
“I don’t get as many people moving out as I used to,” said Robbie Breaux with Real Broker. “We see so many who are filling in from other industries. I used to see oil field like one (out of) every five (homes). Now it’s one in every 25. You’ve got more kids graduating from high school and college, and it seems a lot of them are staying here — which is nice.”
Lafayette Parish also added nearly 20,000 jobs during that five-year span, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The biggest gains were health care and education (4,966) and leisure and leisure and hospitality (4,485).
Manufacturing jobs also grew by 33%. Only jobs in oil and gas extraction declined.
Lafayette Parish, which at 203 square miles is the third-smallest in the state, has a high quality of life factor that is luring new residents, LEDA president and CEO Mandi Mitchell said. The growth will continue in the coming year and likely continue in Carencro.
“The northern part of the parish, there’s opportunity there,” Mitchell said. “There are still parcels of land available for residential and commercial development. There’s still land available (in the south), but we’re at a point now where the municipalities in the northern part of the parish are working hard to attract more retail and rooftops, and it’s going to feed itself.”