West Bank Riverfront
ALGIERS — A six-block slice of the Algiers riverfront could be transformed into a 13-acre master-planned community with up to 1,523 apartments, additional housing and retail space, public parks and a streetcar line, according to plans filed with the New Orleans City Planning Commission.
A review of CPC documents indicates this is one of the largest projects proposed in Orleans Parish post-Katrina. The site involves Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World at 233 Newton St., a Mardi Gras museum and special-events venue, along with the warehouses where Blaine Kern Artists Inc. builds Carnival floats. Documents indicate a new Mardi Gras museum would be
part of the project.
J.S. Karlton Co., a Greenwich, Conn., firm and part-owner of the Place St. Charles office building and International Sales Group of Miami are the evelopers, said Mark Romig, project spokesman.
Documents refer to the project as simply "West Bank Riverfront." "The goal of the project is to provide a unified master plan development up a 13.1-acre site ... with a signature riverfront image," documents say. Romig said plans are to keep Mardi Gras World on the West Bank, but an undetermined number of dens where floats are built would be relocated to other parts of the city.
The project needs several city approvals before construction can begin.
Blaine Kern Sr. is asking the City Planning Commission to rezone the six lots
from light industrial to general commercial with a residential planned Community overlay district. The six blocks are bounded by Brooklyn Avenue to the south, Opelousas Avenue and Eliza Street to the west, River Road to the north and Socrates Street to the east. That request is slated for an Aug. 22 hearing at the CPC.
Plans call for 406,248 square feet of commercial space that would front Brooklyn Avenue. Residential buildings will be taller toward the bridge "to negotiate" with low-scale historic neighborhoods, such as Algiers Point, according to documents.
The project also calls for 1.15 million square feet of residential development, 1,970 residential parking spaces and 560 commercial parking spaces.
Total project square footage is 2 million.
Plans make it clear that in building the project, the developers are striving to carry out the goals of Riverfront Vision 2005, an existing city plan for kickstarting development along the river. Riverfront Vision 2005 was crafted by the CPC after the City Council requested in 2003 that such as plan be formed.
One way the project will fulfill Riverfront Vision 2005 is by creating a public park at Newton Street. The project could include street alterations, such as additional traffic lanes, new neutral ground and space for parallel parking, to better manage traffic. "Doing so would expedite traffic out of the neighborhood and, possibly, create a transit lane for future light rail connecting Gretna and Federal City to the Algiers/Canal Street ferry and Brooklyn Avenue," according to the plans.
New Orleans-based Mathes Brierre Architects is designing the project.
check out the following weblinks for more http://secure.cityofno.com/Resources...Riverfront.pdf