52 jobs & $1.8 million payroll coming to St. Martinville

A SEA OF WEEDS behind the International Trade Center, formerly Martin Mills, might soon become an automotive repair center including an offshore radiator service and a spa and daycare facility for employees and the public. The sale is set for July.

Ken Grissom

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    ST. MARTINVILLE – You might one day soon be able to drop off the kids, have your car fixed, and get a pedicure, all in brand-new facilities on what is now a huge weed lot behind the old Martin Mills.

    SMEDA Executive Director Beth Guidry briefed the Parish Council Wednesday on the impending sale of 56.586 acres of parish property to local oilman Kelly Boudreaux. The sale should go through next month at $594,153, or $10,500 per acre.

    Guidry said the impact of the three businesses Boudreaux is ready to establish immediately would be 52 new jobs with an annual payroll of $1,859,000 having a multiplier effect of some $9 million a year on the community.

    The three businesses Boudreaux proposed to set up are:

    •K3M Automotive – A repair shop catering to both the oilfield and the general public in and around St. Martinville.

    •K3M Radiator Services – Catering to oil companies, with crews on hand to perform offshore repairs, agriculture and the general public within a 50-mile radius.

    •K3M Spa 146 – A combination spa and daycare facility that will be open to the public and also available free to K3M employees. There are also plans for a walking trail around the property.

    Those three businesses will only take up a small portion of the 56-plus-acre tract and an expansion into other commercial uses is in the idea stage, Guidry said.

    Asked how soon development could being after the sale, Boudreaux responded that the parish will be “seeing concrete” almost immediately, Guidry said.

    Boudreaux’s associations with Axxis Drilling, Charter Supply, Ensco Drilling and Cudd Pressure Control, with a combined fleet of 150 cars and trucks, will form the core clientele for K3M Automotive. Those clients along with Diamond Offshore and Pride Drilling are the target clientele for the companion radiator service.

    Any K3M employee with a child age 6 or younger will be able to use the daycare facilities free, and employees and their spouses will also have free use of the spa.

    “This is great news for St. Martin Parish and especially this community,” said Parish President Guy Cormier.

    Cormer expressed confidence that the deal will go through as scheduled in July.

    The property appraised at $10,497 per acre.