NEW ORLEANS | Project/Development Thread

[937Nola]

Originally Posted by tennis1400

This isn't just good news............it's phenomenal !!!!!!! Hopefully the improvements will bear much fruit (development related) along Tulane. It will especially improve the view down Tulane from the top of the airline overpass on the Pontchartrain Expressway towards downtown! Less of the urban desert experience

[tennis1400]

Had a chance to read the Regional Planning Commission update on projects they have scheduled for the coming year in Orleans Parish ... some noticeable ones are :

*about a million dollars worth of pedestrian crossing and timer enhancements for the cbd/warehouse district area.

* Overlay of St Charles Avenue from Louisiana to Calliope

*Broad Street Corridor Bikeway

*Resurfacing I10 from 610 split to the Superdome

*Jefferson Davis Corridor Bikeway

*Improve EB On Ramp to US 90Z From Claiborne

*I‐10 Median Cable Barrier: I‐510‐Twin Span(this will save lives)

*Overlay, Patching, Striping, Improving ADA F.M./C.B.D. Streets

*Fluer De Lis Blvd. PH3

There are things for other years shown but that changes so its worth seeing what they will be spending money on this year.

[Chris from N.O.]

Originally Posted by tennis1400

Had a chance to read the Regional Planning Commission update on projects they have scheduled for the coming year in Orleans Parish ... some noticeable ones are :

*about a million dollars worth of pedestrian crossing and timer enhancements for the cbd/warehouse district area.

* Overlay of St Charles Avenue from Louisiana to Calliope

*Broad Street Corridor Bikeway

*Resurfacing I10 from 610 split to the Superdome

*Jefferson Davis Corridor Bikeway

*Improve EB On Ramp to US 90Z From Claiborne

*I‐10 Median Cable Barrier: I‐510‐Twin Span(this will save lives)

*Overlay, Patching, Striping, Improving ADA F.M./C.B.D. Streets

*Fluer De Lis Blvd. PH3

There are things for other years shown but that changes so its worth seeing what they will be spending money on this year.

So I-10 and St. Chuck both u/c...that should be fun.

[tennis1400]

California, Brazil companies chosen to build new N.O. airport terminal



A partnership between companies from California and Brazil won an evaluation committee’s approval Thursday to oversee construction of Louis Armstrong International Airport’s new $500 million-plus terminal, largely on the basis of the team’s commitment to bid out most of the work to local subcontractors and its track record on similar projects.

The recommendation of Parsons Odebrecht breaks a deadlock created when the committee tried to issue a recommendation last week but wound up with identical scores for that team and a more ad hoc consortium including Hunt Construction Group, of Indianapolis, and several local companies.

Additional approvals are necessary before the selection becomes official, but the committee’s action likely means Parsons Odebrecht will be responsible for building the $546.5 million terminal on the north side of the airport property.



http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com...nies-chosen-to


City Sees Unprecedented Growth in Sales Tax Revenue

May 22, 2014


NEW ORLEANS, LA- Today, Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development and the New Orleans Business Alliance touted a 9.6 percent growth in the City’s sales tax revenue over 2013. In the quarterly Revenue Estimating Conference, committee members cited positive trends in population growth and visitor attraction efforts as key drivers in additional revenue collected by the City. Simultaneously, City Officials note the attraction of nationally recognized retailers and developers as a source of that growth.

“Our strategy has been pretty simple—cut smart, reorganize how government works so people can get the services they deserve, and invest the savings in what matters most,” said Mayor Mitch Landrieu. “The last years gave us an opportunity to reclaim sales tax dollars that for years have left Orleans Parish. Our keen focus in attracting retail and development has allowed our residents to keep their tax dollars at home.”

http://www.nola.gov/mayor/press-rele...es-tax-growth/


3033 Tchoupitoulas St: Donald Maginnis, applicant; Kimyung LLC, owner;
Renovation of existing warehouse building, including modification of existing doors and windows, installation of storefront windows, and addition of covered rooftop patio











Some Drawings for Iberville Redevelopment:

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by tennis1400

3033 Tchoupitoulas St: Donald Maginnis, applicant; Kimyung LLC, owner;
Renovation of existing warehouse building, including modification of existing doors and windows, installation of storefront windows, and addition of covered rooftop patio

NOLA Brewery expansion. Glad to see they are moving forward.

[937Nola]

I agree with the PRC on their stand against further demolition of historic properties downtown, maybe Mr Motwani should take a few classes in architectural appreciation to help educate him on the architectural treasures the city can't attord to loose !!!

http://blog.prcno.org/2014/05/19/tel...oulas-streets/

[tennis1400]

Originally Posted by 937Nola

I agree with the PRC on their stand against further demolition of historic properties downtown, maybe Mr Motwani should take a few classes in architectural appreciation to help educate him on the architectural treasures the city can't attord to loose !!!

http://blog.prcno.org/2014/05/19/tel...oulas-streets/

Agreed! Good news is he is working with Cantrells office to devise a scheme that works to preserve the buildings and create a great new structure. I will assume that this will result in a taller building than the one proposed. Either way I think its good to see that everyone was in favor of the project overall just not the loss of the historic buildings. I think it will be a win win in the long run.

New South Market Rendering:

[Eightball]

^^^ Nice rendering!

NOLA apartment market sustains high occupancy, rents
http://neworleanscitybusiness.com/bl...cupancy-rents/

Home / News / Construction and Real Estate / NOLA apartment market sustains high occupancy, rents
NOLA apartment market sustains high occupancy, rents

By: Greg LaRose, Editor May 23, 2014 0

The latest seasonal report on apartment occupancy shows renters have absorbed nearly all the available inventory in almost every corner of the New Orleans market. That’s allowing landlords to keep lease rates at an all-time high.
.... Total occupancy across the eight markets covered in the report was 94 percent.
The most expensive units and most popular are in the Historic Center — French Quarter, Warehouse District, St. Charles Avenue, Mid-City and downtown — where the average rent was $1,379 and occupancy was at 96 percent. Compared with rates in the fall, prices in the submarket went up $50 per month.
...
The only submarket in the New Orleans area with an occupancy rate less than 90 percent was Kenner, where 84 percent of its units are rented at an average of $830 per month. Occupancy there was up from 81 percent at the same time last year.
The report notes that 1,021 units are under construction at five developments in the metropolitan area, including 264 at Bella Ridge in Harahan, 206 at The Paramount in South Market District and another 96 at the 144 Elk development. In downtown New Orleans alone, another 848 apartments will come online in the next 12 to 18 months, providing a 22 percent increase in inventory.

[prokowave]

It seems like there's still a gap between population growth and what's being developed. Just saw that we have nearly 9000 new residents in the past year and yet only 1000 or so apartments. Of course not everyone is going to live in an apartment but there still seems to be a gap between the supply and demand growth. Maybe it's time to bring back the Trump tower...

There's probably still a lot of room in the upper floors of Canal St. and other retail buildings, but I'm not sure why that's not happening much. Besides that and the few large buildings left (Plaza, WTC, any others?) it seems like we should be seeing more South Market type developments. There's still a lot of space near Loyola between Poydras and Tulane and of course around upper Canal. Still hoping for something a bit more ambitious than South Market though...Speaking of, nice renderings! That should start construction in August, right? I hope they plan on expanding and fast-tracking the rest of the phases.

Regarding Iberville, I'm of course glad to see it redeveloped, but are they going to keep any green space? It looks like a very large amount of surface parking :/ I wish they would do a 4-5 floor garage every couple of blocks and either build more apartments or have some mini-parks/plazas. Edit: I saw some plans for the whole thing and it does look like there will be some green space set aside. Still not thrilled about the surface lots but I think it looks good overall.

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by tennis1400

New South Market Rendering:

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hpho...82220472_n.jpg

Nice building on the right. That's some plain stylish modern design the way I like it. Everytime my place gets something like this, I rub my hands. Fact is for one highrise lost, you may get several like this building up a solid streetwall in exchange, which I won't complain about. Even when I love skyscrapers.

[jjkannan]

Originally Posted by 937Nola

I agree with the PRC on their stand against further demolition of historic properties downtown, maybe Mr Motwani should take a few classes in architectural appreciation to help educate him on the architectural treasures the city can't attord to loose !!!

http://blog.prcno.org/2014/05/19/tel...oulas-streets/

This is just my opinion. I think keeping the historic buildings is very important to the city, but I think New Orleans could do it better. The city has a lot of "pride" in the historic buildings but sometimes I feel like they take no pride in keeping and maintaining the buildings( graffiti, buildings falling apart ,some of them are just simply dirty!) When the buildings are not kept up they loose the historic appeal/charm and just look like a old dirty buildings. If the city feels like they we should save the building then they should fix them up , not just deny every time a someone tries to invest in our city. A city that does this well is San Francisco. They have skyscrapers and historic buildings. But many of the historic buildings are beautiful and kept well. I'm not saying we should be like San Francisco, but if we did compromise more, our city's economy would obviously be better. Imagine if a lot of the buildings in Nola were maintained the way we take care and maintain the cabildo. An example is the Woolworth building. There is absolutely no pride in the current state if Woolworth building. ( dirty, graffiti, broken glass, falling apart)..it's actually a little embarrassing. Which is why I surprised when there were people against the renovation. Anything will be better that what it is now. I'm just afraid of New Orleans, with all of it's potential, will be left behind while other cities progress. If the city feels like these buildings are historic treasure then they should treat them like treasure.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by prokowave

There's probably still a lot of room in the upper floors of Canal St. and other retail buildings, but I'm not sure why that's not happening much.

Scale mainly. The buildings are too small on their own to justify the large expense of adding stairways, elevators, sprinkler systems, retrofitting to meet modern codes, etc. Theoretically you could share these across multiple adjacent buildings, but often the floors don't line up, or the buildings are owned by separate people with no interest in selling or adding residential.

Also worth noting: the second floor of many buildings is used as storage/office/employee space to maximize the ground floor space for merchandise.

[937Nola]

Originally Posted by jjkannan

This is just my opinion. I think keeping the historic buildings is very important to the city, but I think New Orleans could do it better. The city has a lot of "pride" in the historic buildings but sometimes I feel like they take no pride in keeping and maintaining the buildings( graffiti, buildings falling apart ,some of them are just simply dirty!) When the buildings are not kept up they loose the historic appeal/charm and just look like a old dirty buildings. If the city feels like they we should save the building then they should fix them up , not just deny every time a someone tries to invest in our city. A city that does this well is San Francisco. They have skyscrapers and historic buildings. But many of the historic buildings are beautiful and kept well. I'm not saying we should be like San Francisco, but if we did compromise more, our city's economy would obviously be better. Imagine if a lot of the buildings in Nola were maintained the way we take care and maintain the cabildo. An example is the Woolworth building. There is absolutely no pride in the current state if Woolworth building. ( dirty, graffiti, broken glass, falling apart)..it's actually a little embarrassing. Which is why I surprised when there were people against the renovation. Anything will be better that what it is now. I'm just afraid of New Orleans, with all of it's potential, will be left behind while other cities progress. If the city feels like these buildings are historic treasure then they should treat them like treasure.

I moved from NOLA in 2011. I only go there twice a year but with the economy improving, television exposure via shows like Treme and now NCSI, the movie industry etc., interest in investing in the city only improves. Camp St. Downtown and in the Warehouse District was "skid row" in the 1970's but it would be hard to find evidence of that today. Magazine St was a dump from one end to the other in the early 80's and Marigny and Bywater looked like an abandoned section of Detroit with litter strewn everywhere and abandoned tireless stripped cars on every other street. But with patience and a good Architectural Preservation group (PRC) much changed. I worked with the PRC's Christmas in October program and this program helped revitalize areas of the city many considered "tear down-rebuild" neighborhoods...Even the Cabildo was up for demolition in the first half of the 1900's. Oh happy day that never happened !!!....today it's priceless. I think Woolworth's is being demo'd and replaced with a "Post Modern" building which I won't comment on..........? But I have to say every time I'm in New Orleans I'm blown away at the amount of renovations and improvements that New Orleans has made and genuinely suprised to see some sections of the city come back to life. Especially OCH Blvd (Dryades St.), Freret, Oak, Frenchman, St. Claude, Loyola and many more. It takes time, but with patience you'll see many changes in the future.......for the better!

[937Nola]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Scale mainly. The buildings are too small on their own to justify the large expense of adding stairways, elevators, sprinkler systems, retrofitting to meet modern codes, etc. Theoretically you could share these across multiple adjacent buildings, but often the floors don't line up, or the buildings are owned by separate people with no interest in selling or adding residential.

Also worth noting: the second floor of many buildings is used as storage/office/employee space to maximize the ground floor space for merchandise.

I might be mistaken on the address but in the early 90's the block bounded by Iberville, Decatur, Canal and Dorsiere St. Combined their upper floors to make a condominium complex, the floors were at different levels but with the use of short stairs between the different levels everything seemed to work well. I never heard any more about it I only saw the plans but it was a very inovative approach that worked well and was well thought out. I don't know if the project was ever built, but it seemed to be a great idea for bringing the upper floors of the old buildings back into something useful besides storage space. As you wrote......."Theoretically" it could work, I'd imagine much cooperation would be needed with buildings owned by different businesses.

[tennis1400]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Scale mainly. The buildings are too small on their own to justify the large expense of adding stairways, elevators, sprinkler systems, retrofitting to meet modern codes, etc. Theoretically you could share these across multiple adjacent buildings, but often the floors don't line up, or the buildings are owned by separate people with no interest in selling or adding residential.

Also worth noting: the second floor of many buildings is used as storage/office/employee space to maximize the ground floor space for merchandise.

There is also something else that can be done to help address the difficult in meeting modern codes ... It's called the board of building standards and appeals... I went to them myself in January. They can grant you waivers from the code due to difficulties arising from an older building . It's definitely little know but very helpful board to have especially when dealing with older buildings that can't oftentimes satisfy current fire codes , life safety or Ada requirements

[tennis1400]

Originally Posted by prokowave

It seems like there's still a gap between population growth and what's being developed. Just saw that we have nearly 9000 new residents in the past year and yet only 1000 or so apartments. Of course not everyone is going to live in an apartment but there still seems to be a gap between the supply and demand growth. Maybe it's time to bring back the Trump tower...

There's probably still a lot of room in the upper floors of Canal St. and other retail buildings, but I'm not sure why that's not happening much. Besides that and the few large buildings left (Plaza, WTC, any others?) it seems like we should be seeing more South Market type developments. There's still a lot of space near Loyola between Poydras and Tulane and of course around upper Canal. Still hoping for something a bit more ambitious than South Market though...Speaking of, nice renderings! That should start construction in August, right? I hope they plan on expanding and fast-tracking the rest of the phases.

Regarding Iberville, I'm of course glad to see it redeveloped, but are they going to keep any green space? It looks like a very large amount of surface parking :/ I wish they would do a 4-5 floor garage every couple of blocks and either build more apartments or have some mini-parks/plazas. Edit: I saw some plans for the whole thing and it does look like there will be some green space set aside. Still not thrilled about the surface lots but I think it looks good overall.

Some of the Iberville blocks will just be green space... so there will be plenty of that. One of those green blocks will face basin street because of all the graves they found under it.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by 937Nola

I might be mistaken on the address but in the early 90's the block bounded by Iberville, Decatur, Canal and Dorsiere St. Combined their upper floors to make a condominium complex, the floors were at different levels but with the use of short stairs between the different levels everything seemed to work well.

http://www.bluegreenonline.com/explo...x?ResortID=104

[937Nola]

Originally Posted by ardecila

http://www.bluegreenonline.com/explo...x?ResortID=104

Mais..........bein merci, Monsieur.......you're speaking my language. I never kept up with that development, but thanks sooooo much for sharing. It seems to have gone far beyond my expectations!!! I'm happy to see it's successful and hope it ignites a few imaginations out there to develop the upper floors of so many buildings downtown and in the upper Quarter!

[tennis1400]

Walls for the Park are going up:





Some Crescent Park Photos:

[937Nola]

☺