NEW ORLEANS | Project/Development Thread

[Chris from N.O.]

The big, bad news:
http://www.nola.com/business/index.s...l#incart_river

Paper going down to three deliveries a week. I'm not happy about this.

[Blitzen]

Originally Posted by n3rdw0p

The roberts on broad just needs to be redeveloped into a whole foods or trader joes so they can get their jollys off by saying they opened an "urban" market. Once again zulu trashed broad yesterday, so I am against everything Zulu, I really wish Broad street connections would open their "healthy" market with Libertys Kitchen, ANYTHING is better than that large parcel going to waste next to a damn dollar general.

I'm confused by this legal notice from last week: http://classifieds.nola.com/Merch?cu...d_id=608103370

CITY OF NEW ORLEANS BROAD STREET REFRESH PROJECT OCD/DRU LONG TERM COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM ORLEANS PARISH, LOUISIANA FLOODPLAINS and WETLANDS NOTICE EARLY PUBLIC REVIEW NOTICE The City of New Orleans, in accordance with the Office of Community Development Disaster Recovery Unit - Long Term Community Development Program, intends to carry out actions which may affect or be affected by the 100 year flood plain and wetlands and seeks to involve the public in the decision making process. The City of New Orleans is proposing to engage in improvements to 300 Broad Street, a vacant and blighted building. The Broad Street ReFresh Project scope includes the rehabilitation into a commercial and retail building, which will incorporate sustainable design principles that will make the project LEED-certifiable, as well as mitigate storm water runoff. The ReFresh Project will create over 150 jobs in its first year, and adaptively reuse an existing, vacant grocery store building by converting it into an affordable, fresh foods grocery; commercial food service kitchens for healthy school food service providers café and retail space; service provider office space; and rooftop urban garden and community space. The tenants that have committed consist of Whole Foods, Revolution Foods, Liberty's Kitchen, and Tulane School of Medicine. This project has been designated as the Broad Street ReFresh Project and will be using funding under the Housing and Urban DevelopmentLouisiana Community Development Block Grant Program. The proposed redevelopment will be at the following location: 300 North Broad Street New Orleans, Louisiana 29.967216N/ -90.084639W Orleans Parish, Louisiana In accordance with Executive Order 11988, the City of New Orleans has determined that approximately 4 acres of the improvements to the site will be within the 100 year floodplain. In accordance with Executive Order 11990, the City of New Orleans has also determined that the project will not impact wetlands. The project file, along with maps and available details, is located at City of New Orleans Environmental Compliance Unit, 1340 Poydras Street, Ninth Floor, New Orleans, LA 70112 and may be examined during the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. If you need to provide comments or make contact by phone, please call Shirley Smith at (504) 658-4357 or Tom Lasher at 658-4438. Comments will be received until the close of the business day on June 4, 2012. Accommodations will be made for handicapped and non-English speaking persons provided those persons request said accommodations 3 days prior to the requested date of examination.



Is the Zulu thing happening? Is the grocery thing happening? Are both?

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Blitzen

The tenants that have committed consist of Whole Foods, Revolution Foods, Liberty's Kitchen, and Tulane School of Medicine.

Did you catch this buried in the text? Finally some confirmation... I had heard rumors but didn't want to say anything.



Supposedly Whole Foods is looking to get publicity by opening stores in impoverished areas and food deserts - first Detroit, now New Orleans (although our fair city is hardly a Detroit).

[n3rdw0p]

What's left for them to do after public comment? They got city council approval already.

[rcp11889]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Did you catch this buried in the text? Finally some confirmation... I had heard rumors but didn't want to say anything.



Supposedly Whole Foods is looking to get publicity by opening stores in impoverished areas and food deserts - first Detroit, now New Orleans (although our fair city is hardly a Detroit).

That's fantastic..Here's to hoping everything works out. That would be a major boon to Mid-City.

Also, has anyone noticed that Broad is looking pretty alright these days?

[Foley Santamaria]

Originally Posted by rcp11889

That's fantastic..Here's to hoping everything works out. That would be a major boon to Mid-City.

Also, has anyone noticed that Broad is looking pretty alright these days?

Agreed. If this happens, it will help Broad tremendously. I do think Broad can continue to improve still remain diverse and funky.

[ardecila]

^^ If dollar stores and gas stations are "diverse and funky", then I have no problem with the character of the street changing. It could also use a wider neutral ground... take out a lane on each side and put some playgrounds and sports fields in there. It's the perfect size for tennis courts.

I suppose they could also remove a lane and use the excess asphalt for a cycle track or bus lane (Broad used to have an express bus line pre-K)

[ardecila]

Speaking of bikeshare systems...

the RTA and RPC are/were already studying the concept, tentatively named "Roulez" (side note: this name is already better than most attempts in other cities). The twitter is inactive, though.

Also: Howard Hughes' website has a neat image of a refreshed Riverwalk. The description says the mall is tourist-oriented (which is true) but contains nothing about re-targeting the mall towards locals. The fake retailers in the rendering are very generic... they do show a trend towards more fashion and less fais-do-do, but it might be nothing.

[Uptowner]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Also: Howard Hughes' website has a neat image of a refreshed Riverwalk. The description says the mall is tourist-oriented (which is true) but contains nothing about re-targeting the mall towards locals. The fake retailers in the rendering are very generic... they do show a trend towards more fashion and less fais-do-do, but it might be nothing.

But where would that entrance be? Spanish Plaza?

[ardecila]

Yeah, the floor tiles give it away (I hope the beautiful stone surface is restored).

In the meantime, let's get the damn concession stands out of Spanish Plaza.

[MNT]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Did you catch this buried in the text? Finally some confirmation... I had heard rumors but didn't want to say anything.

Supposedly Whole Foods is looking to get publicity by opening stores in impoverished areas and food deserts - first Detroit, now New Orleans (although our fair city is hardly a Detroit).

Wow, this is really cool. I'd just posted a link a few pages back to the article about the store in Detroit because the initiative sounded like a perfect fit for New Orleans.

[IceCream]

Article on State construction budget..nothing too noteworthy but lots of pretty good stuff:

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s...l#incart_river

-------------

No noticable work on the street side but here's a shot from 5/28 of the parking lot area. I took it from the Joseph (whole foods) side

[IceCream]

Here's a link to the renderings of the 6? streetscape projects recently announced:

http://uptownmessenger.com/wp-conten...renderings.pdf

I'm all for enhancing the neutral ground and i'm glad they don't mention benches because i'm afraid it'll just make it more comfortable for vagrants to use and not for regular pedestrians....we'll see. Even if they don't put benches out there are a number of junk chairs that people have left out on the neutral ground and use to sit, drink, (drugs?), gamble, etc...the city really needs to put a stop to that and throw the chairs away on a regular basis.

My friends and I have jokingly gone on neutral ground before with foldup chairs and blankets and just sat there drinking for fun (totally legal), but we cleaned up at the end of the day...that's different. It's not a permanent camping spot on public property.

[IceCream]

I just got out of a meeting in the Energy Centre so here's a view from today of the Civic Theater:

[tennis1400]

CityBusiness reports that Press It Bistro and Automat will open on Friday at 935 Gravier St., at the New Orleans Exchange Center.

The restaurant will serve salads, paninis, wraps, sandwiches and pizza as well as wine and other alcoholic beverages from a coin-operated wine and beer dispenser.

The concept, owned by New Orleans-based franchiser Doyle International, is geared toward airports and downtown office buildings. Doyle also owns The Wine Loft, Le Crepe Nanou and Huey’s 24/7 Diner brands


http://pressitbistrot.com/

[WesternSon]

Civic Theater: Does anyone know which side the main entrance will be? I know they applied for a sign on the O'keefe side, but I have never entered a theatre from the back...?

Louisiana and Magazine: Construction signs are up and a trash bin has arrived. Anyone know if they are still putting in a Jamba Juice? I was told that from an employee of the Poydras location.

Also, with the death of the tourism district bill (hooray) anyone care to take bets on if the Convention center money and associated projects actually happen, let alone in time for the 2013 Superbowl?

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by WesternSon

Civic Theater: Does anyone know which side the main entrance will be? I know they applied for a sign on the O'keefe side, but I have never entered a theatre from the back...?

Louisiana and Magazine: Construction signs are up and a trash bin has arrived. Anyone know if they are still putting in a Jamba Juice? I was told that from an employee of the Poydras location.

Also, with the death of the tourism district bill (hooray) anyone care to take bets on if the Convention center money and associated projects actually happen, let alone in time for the 2013 Superbowl?

It could be kinda cool entering from the back... like a speakeasy or something. I'm guessing Gibbs will fix up one of the two alleys as an entranceway, with stone cobbles and lights and stuff, maybe some posters, kinda like this.

Which corner at Louisiana and Magazine? In the strip mall with the Green Tea, or in one of the two older buildings on the downriver corners? I assume that gated parking lot is off limits (sadly). I'd love to see a Jamba Juice in an old Victorian building...

[WesternSon]

Which corner at Louisiana and Magazine? In the strip mall with the Green Tea, or in one of the two older buildings on the downriver corners? I assume that gated parking lot is off limits (sadly). I'd love to see a Jamba Juice in an old Victorian building...

The garden district/lake side corner- green building that used to be a tax service place, a car crashed into it early Mardi Gras morning...

[ardecila]

Cool, that's usually where I stand for St. Pat's. Crossing my fingers on this one...

[tennis1400]

I live at the Civic Lofts and the entrance to the theatre will be from Okeefe so as to not interfere with the residences. The alleyway closest to 930 wll be where concertgoers will queue to get in.


Permits:

601 POYDRAS ST
SUITE 2100
NEW ORLEANS LA 70130
Tenant build-out of offices as per plans
Job Value($):
$2,760,000.00

617 PIETY ST
NEW ORLEANS LA 70117
(Seems like this is for Pizza Delicious)
Project Description:
RENOVATION OF A WAREHOUSE FOR A PIZZA RESTAURANT INCLUDING NEW STORFRONT,LIGHTING,ROOFTOP VENT AND NON-ILLUMINATED SIGN AS PER PLANS,HDLCP-12-0600 AND BZA DKT #:????.


2700 S BROAD ST
NEW ORLEANS LA 70125
Exterior repairs and renovations as per plans. No use and Occupancy under this permit.
Job Value($):
$1,600,000.00

333 CANAL ST
SUITE 117
NEW ORLEANS LA 70130
INTERIOR RENOVATION TO EXISTING RETAIL SPACE AS PER PLANS.
Job Value($):
$75,000.00

1430 TULANE AVE
NEW ORLEANS LA 70112
RENOVATIONS TO THE 2ND FLOOR,NEW RESEARCH LAB,AS PER PLANS. ELECTRICAL,HVAC AND PLUMBING.
Job Value($):
$300,000.00

2700 S BROAD ST
NEW ORLEANS LA 70125
Interior renovations of 42622 sq ft existing building and construct 1244 sq ft 3rd floor for retail and office use as per plans. No exterior work.
Job Value($):
$2,500,000.00

8300 EARHART BLVD
SUITE 100
NEW ORLEANS LA 70118
INTERIOR BUILD-OUT CONVERTING A VACANT COMMERCIAL SPACE INTO CLINIC AND PHYSICAL THERAPY OFFICE AS PER PLANS. ELECTRICAL,HVAC AND PLUMBING.
Job Value($):
$185,000.00

4901 GENERAL DE GAULLE DR
NEW ORLEANS LA 70131
Construct a 4738 sq ft 1-story bank with drive-through lanes as per plans and Ord# 22,242 mcs
Job Value($):
$1,000,000.00