In 1827, the land was acquired by Antoine Michoud, the son of Napoleon's Administrator of Domains, who moved to the city in 1827.

Michoud operated a sugar cane plantation and refinery on the site until his death in 1863.

His descendants continued operating the refinery and kept the original St. Maxent estate intact into the 20th century.

Two brick smokestack blast furnaces from the original refinery still stand before the Michoud facility today.

[5] During that time, architect Andrew J. Higgins was contracted by the U.S. Government to construct a new aircraft manufacturing facility adjacent to the airfield, at a cost of $180 million ($2.8 billion in 2018).