The Bank of Zachary has purchased a former Regions Bank building on Highland Road for $3.4 million and plans to open its first St. George branch there in the fall.
The bank bought the property at 18224 Highland in a deal that was filed Thursday with the East Baton Rouge Clerk of Court’s Office. The seller was Raising Cane’s Restaurants, which paid $2.1 million for the building in June 2022. Raising Cane’s bought the site at the time for a potential restaurant but decided not to proceed with the location.
Judah Vedros of Kurz & Hebert Commercial Real Estate, who represented Raising Cane’s, said the restaurant chain was looking to lease rather than sell the building. But he said the Bank of Zachary approached it with an offer where it made sense to sell.
Rising land and construction costs have made it “super expensive” to build a bank from the ground up, Vedros said. So taking over a turnkey operation was appealing to the Bank of Zachary, he said. Regions shut down the 3,600-square-foot bank branch in February 2022.
Plans are to open a full-service branch in the building in the fall, said Mark Marionneaux, president and CEO of the Bank of Zachary. Between five and seven people will work in the branch.
This will be the sixth local branch for the Bank of Zachary, joining two locations in Zachary, along with operations in Central, St. Francisville and Watson. The bank had nearly $356 million in deposits as of June 2025, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
“This is a great, great opportunity for us to expand for our customers in East Baton Rouge Parish and to reach into Ascension Parish,” Marionneaux said.