Fulton Street
The opening of the new 27 floor Harrah's Hotel on September 18 will anchor another Harrah's project: the redevelopment of Fulton Street. The street, which runs alongside the hotel, has been upgraded with restaurants and a jazz club.
Harrah's has closed the block of Fulton Street between Poydras and Lafayette to traffic and turned it into a pedestrian mall.The mall will feature two restaurants. Gordon Biersch, which opened two years ago, now will include a beer garden to serve pedestrians on the strip. Riche, Harrah's in-house restaurant operated by chef Todd English, will have an entrance on the street.
Another restaurant, Grand Isle is scheduled to open in the first quarter of next year. The corridor also features a jazz club called 528.
Harrah's is in talks with other possible tenants for the block, which is lined with bricks and features a gazebo with larger-than-life sculptures of musicians. The casino is considering another restaurant or entertainment venue for the property. Retail shops, though, probably will not be included in that block, Hoskins said.
In the next block of Fulton, bound by Lafayette and Girod streets and open to vehicles, there currently are no plans to redevelop the bottom floor of the Harrah's garage, but Hoskins left open the possibility that it could happen in the future.
A temporary stage can be erected at the intersection of Fulton and Lafayette streets for outdoor concerts, Hoskins said.
Although Harrah's is not pursuing retail business, Mickal said high-end and specialty stores selling leather goods and sunglasses, for instance, would fit perfectly along the strip.
The Fulton Street development gives the tourism industry another way to promote New Orleans to travelers. Aside from the Harrah's project are the restaurants 7 on Fulton and Wolfe's in the Warehouse are among the businesses on Fulton.
As Fulton Street becomes completely developed with retail shops, restaurants and clubs as some are predicting, the tree-lined, balcony-laden street would be a more pedestrian-friendly link between the French Quarter and the Convention Center than Convention Center Boulevard.