Under the federal grant, awarded under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's new Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, money must be spread much further than the 23-acre Iberville site. Developers working with the Housing Authority of New Orleans and City Hall have pledged to transform a 300-square-block area bordered by Tulane and St. Bernard avenues and Broad and Rampart streets.
Though the initial grant is just $30.5 million, plans call for spending nearly $600 million in the "Iberville-Treme" area to build nearly 2,500 new apartments, some of them in shuttered school buildings and many above ground-floor stores and cafes.
In their initial application for the federal money, officials painted an ambitious vision of retail renewal, including a grocery store and farmers market inside the Iberville footprint and, in the long term, "a large-scale urbanized destination lifestyle center along Canal Street, combining food, beverage, and other entertainment with retail and amenities tailored to meet the needs of residents and tourists."
The center, they said, would restore Canal Street as a regional shopping destination, provide services and jobs for neighborhood residents, and boost city sales-tax revenue.
LINK