Quote:
Originally Posted by Busy Bee
The challenges of a historic structures reuse isn't the only thing that keeps a retailer like IKEA in the suburbs. The nature of goods that a store like IKEA sells tends to reinforce their preference, like many other big box stores, for stores with ample customer parking and self loading zones. If that can;t be incorporated succesfully into this power plant comcept I don't see a retailer, especially foreign, coming even close to going along with it.
My two cents.
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Thanks for the input.
The power plant site has excellent highway access, being along the Tchoupitoulas corridor that actually links New Orleans' container port to the Interstate system. The heavy truck traffic through the neighborhood is one obstacle in the way of turning this into the New Urbanist paradise that was shown in those renderings on the last page.
I don't know the details, but I'm sure IKEA ships quite a bit of their items by ocean freight, so the proximity of the container port is a definite bonus.
The power-plant does pose several unique challenges, which is why I had always assumed that, if IKEA were the secret marquee tenant, they would construct
their own building on an adjacent block - the block sizes in the Lower Garden District are in line with several IKEA stores in California, so there's enough room for a parking deck with a warehouse level above and then a showroom level above that.
Now that I know Ullian is trying to attract the tenant into the power-plant itself, that changes the matter. I can't think of any huge retail tenants who are interested in re-using old buildings. Either this is gonna be something completely unique and out of left field, or it will be a radical departure for a major chain retailer.
On the other hand, the power-plant is not a bad building to re-use. The size of the former generators meant that the interior is a largely column-free, clear-span space - a big advantage for big-box stores.