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Old Posted Jul 22, 2006, 9:21 PM
no-la-usa no-la-usa is offline
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New Condo Proposal

Rezoning sought for condo plan
900 units near Quarter proposed
Saturday, July 22, 2006

Apparently not content with the 28-story, 150-unit condominium tower he is hoping to build in the Warehouse District, New Orleans developer Tom Bauer is looking to build a far larger condo complex just outside the French Quarter.

The complex would occupy the site of a Winn-Dixie supermarket that Bauer built five years ago near the Municipal Auditorium but that has been vacant since Hurricane Katrina and is not expected to reopen. It would have as many as 900 condos, 2,500 parking spaces, space for several stores and businesses, and a museum or theater.

Bauer has asked the City Planning Commission to rezone a 15.7-acre tract stretching five blocks from Interstate 10 to Crozat Street, just across Basin Street from the auditorium. Bauer wants to change the zoning from LI, light-industrial, to C-2, general commercial, which would restrict the types of uses permitted but would allow new construction of unlimited height.


The commission will hold a public hearing on the request Tuesday and is likely to approve rezoning the land, although to more restrictive categories than Bauer has requested. The final decision will be up to the City Council. The site is in Councilman James Carter's district.

Because his request is only for a zoning change, not yet for construction, Bauer has not had to submit actual development plans to the Planning Commission. He did not return a call Friday seeking information on his plans.

But based on preliminary designs he has shown unofficially to the commission and to some nearby property owners and residents, Bauer is planning a 900-unit condo project, to be called either St. Louis Place or the Nouveau Carre, and featuring two or three towers as tall as 30 stories and 361 feet each. The address would be 1501 St. Louis St., across the street from the Iberville public housing development.

The project also would comprise one or more garages with 2,500 parking spaces, including 1,500 spaces for the condos; 240,000 square feet of commercial space for businesses such as a drugstore, restaurant, bakery or coffee shop, dress shop and dry cleaner's; and a 10,000-square-foot museum or theater that the city would be able to use to promote the French Quarter and other attractions.

Bauer, whose previous projects include the 12-story luxury condo building at 625 St. Charles Ave., reportedly has told some neighbors the entire project would cost about $150 million. The condos, as many as 14 to a floor in each tower, would sell for $220,000 to $600,000.

Bauer has told neighbors the development would help revitalize North Rampart Street, a longtime goal of many city planners and officials.

Some nearby residents have expressed enthusiasm about the project but concern about the height of the proposed buildings. "Mr. Bauer's willingness to invest millions to develop this site is gratifying to French Quarter residents in my organization," said Carol Greve, president of French Quarter Citizens Inc. "We do think, however, that heights should be limited."

Opposition also could come from community activists who fear Bauer's project would threaten the future of the Iberville housing complex, which has reopened partially since Katrina but which activists fear various developers want to demolish.

Besides the closed Winn-Dixie, the site Bauer wants to rezone also includes a recreational vehicle park next to the interstate and a fish-processing plant on the upriver side of St. Louis Street. The site once was part of a Norfolk Southern railroad corridor. Most of it was used as a parking lot for the casino that operated at the Municipal Auditorium for seven months in 1995.

Instead of the C-2 zoning Bauer is seeking, the Planning Commission staff is recommending that the third of the site closest to the French Quarter should be rezoned to C-1A, the same as along lower St. Charles Avenue and parts of Canal Street, which would provide greater control over the height and mass of any new buildings. The rear two-thirds of the site would be rezoned C-1, which is less restrictive than C-1A but more restrictive than C-2.

In general, the staff's analysis says, "the staff generally believes that height can be accommodated on this site" but "is concerned with the potential for unlimited height on the entire site, given the proximity to such sensitive areas as the Vieux Carre and Treme." Its recommendations are designed to "balance the request of the applicant with the potential concerns of the adjacent neighborhoods."
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