NEW ORLEANS | Project/Development Thread

[sguil1]

Looking back on the schematics it looks like the structure would top out at 140 feet instead of 120. 12 storys.

[sguil1]

Columbia Park at the Bayou District...

Anyone heard of this project? Sounds like a huge planned community project just outside of city park. Apparantly construction is already underway according to the website.

http://columbiaparc.com/index.php

http://www.columbiares.com/

[djp4lsu]

Looks like that Columbia project is the redevelopment of the St. Bernard projects. I knew they had some sort of plan idea linked with City Park, but I don't know if anything ever came of it, or if the Columbia project is that. But this project is definitely on the St. Bernard site.

[SlidellWx]

The St. Bernard redevelopment is coming along fast. I drove by on 610 recently, and saw tons of new rooftops.

[sguil1]

sounds awesome.

[sguil1]

Interesting article on plaza tower.

http://neworleanscitybusiness.com/up...fm?recid=26200

[sgray]

Foreclosure notice delivered on Market Street Power Plant
by Rebecca Mowbray, The Times-Picayune
Monday August 10, 2009, 5:52 PM

ELIOT KAMENITZ/THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
The former Market Street Power Plant was foreclosed on Monday.Foreclosure notices were delivered Monday on a former Entergy power plant that a Miami developer purchased after Hurricane Katrina to turn into a $2.2 billion hotel, condominium, retail and entertainment development.

Florida investor Burt Eisenberg filed a petition in Orleans Parish Civil District Court triggering the foreclosure filing on the 104-year-old Market Street power plant after its owner, Market Street Properties LLC, failed to pay a $6.5 million note that was due in June 2007.

The note carries a 12.5 percent interest rate. Eisenberg, a trustee of the Market Street Trust, is seeking the unpaid balance of the loan, plus interest charges and fees since July 1, 2008.

If Miami developer Michael Samuel does not satisfy the debt, the 20-acre Market Street power plant property will go to auction sometime in October. "We are preparing to auction it," said Civil Sheriff Paul Valteau Jr.

Samuel, a friend of New Orleans attorney William Broadhurst, bought the giant brick plant from Entergy New Orleans Inc. for $10 million in January 2007 while the utility was in bankruptcy. The imposing brick building has been sitting idle since 1973 along the Mississippi River near the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.The Web site for the developer Samuel & Co., says that "Entergy Station" would have included 1,500 residences, a boutique hotel, 600,000 square feet of retail and a 1,000-seat jazz venue. The Web site says that the project would be valued "in excess of $2.2 billion."





Samuel applied for $183 million in Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds to help finance the project. He received preliminary approval for them in August 2007, but Whit Kling, director of the State Bond Commission, said that Samuel withdrew the request in July 2008 -- the same month that Eisenberg now seeks to begin collecting interest and fees on the deal.

Neither Samuel nor Eisenberg returned phone calls seeking comment. Samuel, an experienced developer, would have been on the forefront of the real estate market implosion in Florida. During the time when he was working on the deal, banks have virtually stopped lending on commercial projects.

Many had looked to the project to pique interest in the New Orleans Building Corp.'s efforts to redevelop the Mississippi riverfront in New Orleans. The smokestacks of the Market Street plant are a distinctive feature on the New Orleans skyline, and the brick building is considered one of the few examples of industrial architecture in the city.

"If the last 20 years have been singularly about the redevelopment of the Warehouse district, the next 20 years will center on the transformation of the riverfront," said Sean Cummings, director of the city development agency. "We empathize with real estate developers in this challenging time, but hope that whoever buys the property will develop it in an inventive, world-class way."

So far, New Orleans has escaped the crush of foreclosures that have plagued other cities. Major buildings that have been seized and sold at foreclosure in recent years include the Plaza Tower on Howard Avenue, the Audubon Building next to the Ritz-Carlton New Orleans Hotel on Canal Street, and the defunct Claiborne Towers building, which previously served as both a hotel and apartments on Canal Street.

Rebecca Mowbray can be reached at rmowbray@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3417.

[tennis1400]

I love the market street plant. Hope something really inventive happens there.

[ardecila]

Canal Streetcar Terminal



Regional Transit Authority officials got an angry earful Tuesday night when they went to Lakeview looking for feedback on their latest proposal to build a transfer station for streetcars and buses near the intersection of Canal Boulevard and City Park Avenue.

Of the more than two dozen speakers who stepped to the microphone at First Baptist Church, only two offered support for the $9.8 million project that the RTA intends to open two years from now.

After the hearing, RTA Chairman Cesar Burgos said that while planners will take the public comments into consideration, his agency plans to move forward with the project.

[ardecila]

Good to see a progressive, modern, pedestrian-oriented streetscaping in New Orleans.

Harrison Avenue corridor in Lakeview getting a face-lift



Through a mix of city, state and federal efforts, the commercial strip along Lakeview's Harrison Avenue is being transformed into a picturesque thoroughfare with wider sidewalks, landscaping, better lighting and bike lanes.

While the work is being done, the lake side of the four-lane boulevard has been closed to traffic with the river side used for cars traveling in both directions.

The construction could easily be a nightmare for commerce along the street, but most business owners say their sales haven't been badly hurt and that improvements to the street are much needed.

The South Louisiana Submerged Roads Program will spend $2.6 million to resurface and repair Harrison Avenue from Marconi Drive to West End Boulevard. The Sewerage and Water Board will spend another $600,000 to replace a 30-inch water main that had been leaking beneath the street.

On the heels of the street improvements, the city will begin a $4 million streetscape project that will include brick sidewalks and enhanced lighting and landscaping. These will be paid for by the Community Development Block Grant funds that were created with money left over from the Road Home program.

"We really want pedestrians to feel very comfortable, to feel that they can walk and cycle through that location, " Mendoza said.

"We will narrow the streets at those intersections and drivers will feel the road narrow on them, " Mendoza said. "It tends to slow drivers down without actually putting something in the street."

[ardecila]

Lake Forest Plaza redevelopment plan detailed



Unveiling the most detailed plans yet for their proposed redevelopment of the mostly vacant site of the former Lake Forest Plaza mall in eastern New Orleans, developers Cesar Burgos and Ashton Ryan appeared to win several City Council members' endorsement Tuesday for a tax break needed to let them move forward.

The developers' plans for the 81-acre site -- at this point still more dream than reality -- include attracting a Wal-Mart store and several smaller and more upscale retail outlets, renovating and reopening a multiscreen movie theater, building a 1,200-vehicle garage, opening a fresh-produce market, creating a police substation and eventually adding hotels or other hospitality-industry attractions.

The developers and planners hope the collection of smaller stores and restaurants, to be built around a 1.5-acre green space at the site's western edge and anchored by the theater and a major retailer such as a Target or Kohl's, would serve as a "town center" or "lifestyle center" for eastern New Orleans.

The developers plan to rename the site the New Orleans East Marketplace.

Ryan, a banker, said "there is no way" for the overall $220 million redevelopment to move forward without a commitment from Wal-Mart or another big-box retailer. Wal-Mart is the developers' first choice, he said.

[SlidellWx]

The Lake Forest plans look good. NOE really needs some retail. With 60,000 or so people living there, I'm still shocked they don't at least have a Wal-Mart reopened yet. It is one of the fastest repopulating parts of the city, so any additional commercial development is fantastic.

[sguil1]

Nickelodeon theme park and water park to begin construction THIS FALL at N.O. east former six flags site. To be completed by november 2010. Great news in my opinion.

http://neworleanscitybusiness.com/vi...cfm?recid=1457

Link to the only other Nickelodeon park (Mall of America)

http://www.nickelodeonuniverse.com/

[SlidellWx]

This is fantastic news. I think the water park will be a huge success.

[sguil1]

LSU hospital layout.



WAY too much surface level parking on downtown side. Hope this gets changed!

[ardecila]

Aww, hell no!

Now do y'all understand why LSU's plan sucks? They have absolutely no idea how to be responsible neighbors in a city. The retail at the base of the parking garage is a joke. Nobody will walk there, since it will be so uncomfortable and hot. Supposedly, the parking lots are "reserved for future expansion", but who knows when that will come? It's not an excuse to make bad planning decisions today. For god's sake, move the buildings to the Claiborne side and build parking lots on the Galvez side if you have to.

Also, rip down that cloverleaf. Even if they don't tear down I-10, it's still a poor use of land. Replace it with a straight offramp leading to Tulane Ave.

The only good part of this plan is the demolition of the building at Canal and Claiborne, which even I will admit is ugly as f*ck.

[sguil1]

Attended a meeting at University Hospital today where the architects showed detailed renderings of the entire new hospital plan. Nbbj and Blitch/Knevel are the main firms working on the plans.

-Overall the interior designs were first class, this would be a state of the art hospital
-Interesting point about the charity estimates : do not include the cost of buying the needed medical equipment ($89 million of the cost of the new hospital is for this) and does not include cost for things such as adding bathrooms in each patient room.
-As far as all the surface parking : like ardecila mentioned, this would be for "further expansion" (who knows when that would happen). Expansion options for this hospital would be horizontal not vertical. This is by far the worst part of this plan.
-Overall the interior design of the hospital looks awesome.

[ardecila]

Thanks for the update. I'm not in the city right now, or I would try to attend some of these meetings (are they open to the public?) I will return soon, so I should be able to enter the fray.

The individual architecture of each building is not what concerns me. I understand that the goal is to produce a state-of-the-art hospital. But LSU seems intent on designing a modern, flashy building that totally pulls back from the city around it, and in doing so, destroys 200 years of city planning that allows for a good pedestrian experience and a small neighborhood scale.

It's not even the preservation aspects that offend me... although without LSU's hospital inside it, Old Charity will continue to deteriorate, and re-use becomes less and less likely. Buildings that large, no matter how wonderful, are not easy to repurpose.

If LSU were to propose a NEW, modern hospital that is worthy of the city it sits in, then I would have no problem with the new site or the demolition of those 15 blocks. It doesn't have to be in a historic style - in fact, it probably shouldn't. LSU has a poor track record when it comes to architecture - University Hospital looks like a cinder shitbox.

[sguil1]

"Cinder Shitbox" - Awesome!!! I like that description and I agree. There are multiple downsides and upsides to this project. I think multiple things will have to be sacrificed for this project. Overall you have to decide if its worth the downsides.

Bad :
-leveling part of mid-city (obviously)
-hospital not actually in downtown
-all that parking futher separating it from downtown
-cost
-low-rise (6 story) design

Good :
-Tons of jobs (hundreds of construction jobs over next few years, then better paying hospital jobs)
-LSU medical school locked in to staying in New orleans for the next 50-100 years (There was a huge push in BR to move the school there post K). This would amount to thousands of jobs lost
-Although this would destroy a part of mid-city I think it may totally revitalize the rest of it.
-Satellite developments (housing/buisiness) around that end of canal and mid-city (hopefully buildings such as the green texaco highrise will get bought and revamped as condos etc.)

Best case : lsu would build higher and destroy less of mid-city, charity would get bought and re-used, all is well. Don't think all of this will happen but I think the economic boom of building the hospital and keeping lsu in n.o. would be great things no matter if your for or against the hospital.

[ardecila]

I don't think it's an either/or. LSU can choose a urban-friendly design for little to no additional cost, simply by shuffling the buildings around on the site. Whatever they do, they will set the precedent and tone for the surrounding development that everyone claims is "sure to follow". There's been talk of another Wal-Mart nearby, which is exactly what the area needs.... MORE parking lots. (Here's to hoping they get Target instead, which is accustomed to building urban stores properly)

The city already permitted a suburban-style Home Depot just across I-10. I'll give a pass to that, since it was a gesture of goodwill on Home Depot's part in supplying Katrina rebuilders, and they just decided to use a stock design to get the store up and running quicker. They also allowed a suburban-style Albertsons at Tulane and Jeff Davis, which is now empty.

The city has repeatedly shown that they will require good urban design only where local residents will accept nothing else - i.e. wealthy neighborhoods with preservationists. If this trend continues, then much of the city will be vulnerable to teardown and replacement with suburban style development, and then Mid-City will look like Metairie. The Domain Companies' apartment buildings, so far, have used good design. But I don't know if anybody else will bother if the main neighborhood anchor looks like something airlifted in from Mandeville.