blackcoat

A decision on the Renaissance Town Center's status as a special financing district is being delayed three weeks because today's meeting was "not properly advertised". Also, a few key players are behind on their loan payments =(

A development group working under the name "2400 Canal LLC" is planning to renovate the Old City Hall annex. The problem is that this is on the property that is being set aside for development of the new VA hospital... Toward the end of the same article are brief mentions about the Federal City project in Algiers and 930 Poydras. Restoration work on the Mahalia Jackson Theatre of Performing Arts is underway, and should be complete by August. The theatre is scheduled to reopen by early 2009.

rcp, you mentioned reading more news about ICInola the other day (possibly in the print edition of City Business?). Today, New Orleans City Business has a new article on ICInola and associated retail tenants. Also in the Bywater, NOCCA is purchasing additional property for future expansion, and not too far away, a new neighborhood center is opening in the 7th Ward.

Wow, that is infuriating. Though it is legal to sell your property for a price that you set, it's a stark reminder that it only takes one person to hold-up a sizeable recovery project. And if you want to get even more fired up, read about Mike Motwani, owner of fine t-shirt shops in CBD and the Quarter. Ed Badouh's actions are greedy at best, immoral at worst, reprehensible regardless, but still legal.... The legality of Motwani's actions are another matter.

Development firm The Domain Companies (same people involved with The Preserve, The Crescent, and The Meridian) announce more loft apartments in Mid-City. The plan will convert the former Gold Seal Creamery site into apartments for artists and will also rehab several smaller blighted properties in the surrounding neighborhood.

nola17, there was a provision in the UNOP plan to study the removal of the stretch of I-10 between Highway 90 and the I-10/610 split near the Industrial Canal. As far as I know, no money has actually been appropriated for such a study. A mixed use, mixed income development has been proposed to replace Iberville, but I have not yet seen the details of what was proposed during the City Council hearing in December. Like many problems plaguing the city, the state, and the country, we must go beyond the cosmetic to reach the heart of the issue, and once we are there, positive aggressive action must be continuously undertaken. Removing the overpass does not solve the homeless problem; it only puts it out of sight, forcing those homeless individuals to seek shelter under another overpass (and causes severe traffic issues too). Placing each of the individuals into public housing is a step in the right direction, but it does not address the root causes that led to that person being homeless in the first place... Honestly though, I don't know what the answer is, but I'd love to help come up with a plan. I do believe that solutions to homelessness will involve reforms in education, job training, tax policy, welfare policy, affordable housing policy, and, to a lesser extent, land use and transit policies. But government and charitable groups can only do so much... even if we had the perfect program in place, what do we do with those people who refuse that help?? Once again, I don't have a good answer. Let me know if you have any thoughts on the subject, but until then, back to the topic of this thread...

Puddinhead makes a very important point: the city and state did not let this one sail by them, and reading the articles supports that. Blanco and Nagin were part of the initial announcement and expressed a great amount of support for the jazz park. As was referenced in the Times Picayune article "Dominion Tower dropped from downtown project", it was the mayor's office that brought Hertz back to the table after negotiations between Hertz and Geller broke down in July '07. Whether the city and state actions matched the strength of their rhetoric remains another story, but I am still unclear about the full extent of their efforts or involvement due to a lack of communication with the public, though there may have been various non-disclosure agreements that prevented much from being said about the deal. I speculate that FEMA would only reimburse the city if they kept their existing buildings, which made Mike Siegel's suggestion to purchase the building much harder to do without state help given the current standing of the city's finances. During a year in which Blanco was being thrashed for ICF's abyssmal management of the Road Home program and the state's lack of sufficient oversight and underestimation of the program's cost, it might have been hard for her to rally lawmakers to support the deal. Admittedly, this paragraph is pure speculation on my part, and I would love to hear from anyone who has more information about what actually transpired between Hertz, Geller, and the government (city, state, or federal). I don't know what this means for the jazz park, but around the same time that Geller informed the public that he would be selling the Hyatt, the state-run Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District announced their intent to purchase Dominion Tower and the New Orleans Centre from Judah Hertz. Any word on this? ----------------------------------------- In other development news, the NOPD headquarters are reopening today, Hancock Bank will open a new financial center (bigger than an ordinary branch?) in the CBD on Friday, and Pres Kabacoff will open a "healing center" in the Bywater.

Speaking of which, here is the Times-Picayune article discussing the three new residential complexes in the Tulane Ave. corridor. -------------- Staroftheshow, the New York Times article and slideshow are dealing with two large and ambitious projects: The National Jazz Center, and the Reinventing the Crescent project. However, since their publication 4 months ago, a few things have changed... Laurence Geller, CEO of Strategic Hotels & Resorts (former owners of The Hyatt Regency near The Superdome) announced his plans in May 2006 for the National Jazz Center. The plan involved a raised park covering six blocks downtown from Tulane Ave. to the Hyatt, an area currently occupied by government buildings. The park itself was to including various museum elements, practice spaces, a small 300-seat venue, and a centerpiece theatre, all designed by Thom Mayne. Under the park at street level, there would be restaurants, shops, a grocery store, a movie theatre, a parking garage, and a tunnel for Poydras Street. The government buildings (City Hall, Civil District Court, old Supreme Court building, old state building, etc.) would be moved into the vacant Dominion Tower. Unfortunately, there was little progress over the course of the year, and less than 2 weeks after the publication of the article in the New York Times, Judah Hertz (CEO of the Hertz Investment Group, the owner of Dominion Tower) went on record saying that his negotiations ended with Geller in July '07 and that he was looking for another buyer for the tower (the comments from realtor Mike Siegel of Corporate Realty are particularly revealing). This should not have come as a surprise though, as nearly a year before, the New York Times reported that Geller accussed Hertz of endangering the whole project because he wanted an unreasonable amount of money for Dominion Tower. Later in October, Geller announced that he was selling the Hyatt, effectively bringing his plans for the park to a close. The sale of the Hyatt was finalized late last week, and plans themselves have been donated to the National Jazz Park foundation in the hope that someone else will complete the project. Reinventing the Crescent is still going forward, and a final plan is to be released on an unannounced date in early 2008. However, this is still just a plan, and even the planners concede that it may take over a decade for the project to come to fruition. I don't have a wealth of material to write here, but if you want to learn more about the project, take a look at the Riverfront Vision 2005 and the PowerPoint presentation from the recent concept design and review meeting. I will report on it as I find out more, but so far, the most controversial aspect of the plan involves using the riverfront land for private residential development.

Does anyone know when projects are removed from this list? Vantage Tower is still on here, and the Times Picayune reported in February '07 that the project was being placed on hold. I'm guessing that it stays on this list until it is officially canceled. Speaking of which, the developers are supposed to re-evaluate the project in '08. Has anyone seen anything new about Vantage Tower ?

The city has granted Victory Real Estate a demolition permit for the Lindy Boggs Medical Center, though the investment group may not move immediately to develop the property.

Keeping the open air feel of the shopping center would be nice, but if Property One's featured properties and PMAT's portfolio are similar to what is being planned, I wouldn't get my hopes up. Ideally, the redevelopment of this area would be more along the lines of the Renaissance Town Center. Time to start petitioning Councilman Carter's office.

I didn't mention this in the Plaza Tower thread, but I'm fairly certain that Plainfield Direct (the new owners) don't really plan to do anything with the building on their own, but that's not necessarily bad. After renovating Plaza Tower, I'm sure that they will look for a buyer, and who knows what will be done with the new structure (offices, condos, apartments, a hotel?). In other news, the Aurora Village shopping center has been sold, and will likely be replaced with several big box stores. I grew up not too far from here, and though I think that Gen. Degaulle is an under-utilized commercial corridor, I don't know if this is the best use of the space. In all fairness though, this is probably one of the most suitable locations for big box development within Orleans parish.

Bonds have been approved for a new residential development in the warehouse district at the corner of Poeyfarre and Constance, about 2 blocks from Tra

[url=http://www.tracageliving.com/index.html]Tra

fla_tiger, what is SSP and where might we go to view these photos ?

I will be the first to admit that I don't know much about streetcar engineering. I always figured that the underpass would be the biggest obstacle facing a streetcar extension along Carrollton from Claiborne to Canal. But why would the underpass actually be a problem? I have a few thoughts on potential hang-ups, but I would appreciate it if anyone could provide more than mere speculation on the matter. * Flooding. How much water (depth) can a streetcar safely traverse? Any flooding heavy enough to prevent cars from crossing would also disrupt streetcar service. But what if there is only an in or two of water in the underpass? Cars would be fine, but how would the streetcar fare? Depending on the maximum safe water depth for streetcar operation, the underpass may flood too frequently to provide reliable service (though reliable service is not exactly a strong suit of the RTA). * Slope. I image that this is a non-issue since the trolleys in San Francisco climb some fairly steep hills, and above- and below-grade proposals were made for the Desire crossing. Then again, those trolleys are powered using a different type of technology than our streetcars, and it is possible that the Desire proposals, though shot down at the objection of community members, were put away before the engineers ever had a chance to deem the proposals physically feasible. * Physical space. There may not be enough physical space to fit a streetcar into the underpass with an appropriate amount of clearance for the streetcar cables overhead. * Expense. If the problems above are too great to overcome, the I-10 overpass / offramps might need to be reconfigured, which would be a huge expense in addition to the construction of the extension itself. Also, there are the operating costs to consider, as this is an extra 2 miles worth of track. Does anyone know RTA's operating cost per mile of streetcar line? On that note, I'd like to speculate positively about a streetcar extension from Claiborne to Washington Ave. at Xavier. S. Carrollton is near the top of Blakely's priority list of streets to repave, and a streetcar extension would probably need to run in the street (at least partially) given the very thin strips of median near several left-turn lanes. If the street is going to be torn up and resurfaced, could there ever be a better time to lay down the track and set up the overhead wires? In addition to increased accessibility to the university, the presence of the streetcar could help spur additional development in an area already being targeted for development. It might even bolster future arguments for uniting the St. Charles line with the Carrollton spur, as this extension would close 50% of the existing gap. So, what do you think? Any thoughts, comments, or hard facts ?

Purchase of Dominion Tower + New Orleans Centre: Take Two: http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/1...defunct_no.html Maybe the state will succeed where the Hyatt and the city could not? I have a sneaking suspicion that Judah Hertz's minimum selling price is more than market value; hopefully I'm wrong about that. There are plenty of very smart uses for this land and office tower, and though a sale of the property doesn't guarantee anything necessarily, I think it would be a huge step toward reinvigorating the Superdome area.

I wonder if the Bywater development is ICInola ?

There's a new article about converting two buildings are the corner of Baronne and Gravier to apartments: http://blog.nola.com/tpmoney/2007/09/downt...dings_to_b.html The developer, Apartment Development Services Ltd., has photos of the two buildings on their site, as well as a small rendering of a proposed 30-story building on Rampart. http://www.apartmentds.com/properties.html This seems to be unrelated to an article nearly a month ago about Mohan Kailas' twin mid-rises on the same block of Baronne: http://blog.nola.com/tpmoney/2007/08/two_d...eans_redev.html

NCB, thank you very much for the warm welcome to the forum. Jeffschwartz, I completely agree with you that a dedicated right-of-way for rail transit would be ideal. However, I'm fairly certain that the New Orleans Public Belt (NOPB) is still actively used to route freight between the various rail lines feeding into the city, and I speculate that new investment in the port can only strengthen the NOPB's current function. That, and I swear that I've seen trains going by Canal Place since Katrina. Are you suggesting that we change the function of the NOPB, or is there enough room in the easement for light rail and freight to co-exist? (Aside: planned route for the rail portion of the East-West Corridor would use space in at least 2 different active rights-of-way) Abandoned easements were mentioned in at least one of the UNOP planning district proposals as well as a recent RPC transit plan, so the rights-of-way are there... somewhere. I will see what I can turn up, but back to cartography for a moment. ----------------------- I mapped out the Desire streetcar proposal as well as the existing streetcar routes (NCB, I couldn't find your Google Map layover, so I made my own). According to some information that's several years old, it sounded like the Desire proposal won't be happening any time soon. The portion of the Norfolk-Southern Railway between Oliver Yard and the NOPB was hotly contested in August of 2002, and the RTA's later write-up for the Desire line in November 2004 shows that little had changed: "The Desire Streetcar Line is Not Recommended at this time based on the absence of a current capital and operating financial plan to evaluate. FTA notes that NORTA and Norfolk Southern Railroad have not reached an agreement on how to accommodate both freight and streetcar service at the Press Street grade crossing in the eastern portion of the corridor. Since the surrounding community has rejected above- or below-grade alternatives at the crossing, the failure to reach an agreement impedes NORTA’s ability to move forward with the project. NORTA must resolve this alignment issue and demonstrate progress in advancing the project within the next year, or risk being removed from preliminary engineering status." Interesting tidbit there. I imagine that within a year's time, the RTA's focus shifted from reinstating the Desire line to figuring out how to continue normal operations while staying out of the red. Has anyone come across any newer material about the Desire project?

Two new mixed use developments are being proposed by Mohan Kailas, one at the old Woolworth building on Canal, and the other being a pair of mid-rises flanking the NOPSI building on Baronne. http://blog.nola.com/tpmoney/2007/08/two_d...eans_redev.html There are also 250 new apartment units planned near the Broad / Poydras crossing: http://www.neworleanscitybusiness.com/upto...cfm?recid=12270

NCB, your idea for a Poydras-Claiborne follows a similar route to the proposed light rail to the airport from the Unified New Orleans Plan. I have cobbled together the portions of the UNOP light rail route proposed in the District 1 (downtown + French Quarter) and District 3 (Carrollton/Broadmoor/Hollygrove/University), but have not yet been able to find the remaining portion of the proposal that extends to the airport. It should be noted that there is a proposed alternative rerouting the line between Union Station and the intersection of Claiborne and Martin Luther King. This is a completely separate proposal from the East-West Corridor initiative, which features light rail as a large component in a multifaceted attempt to improve transit between the I-310 / Airline Drive interchange and downtown. There are 4 route alternatives shown for the downtown leg of the light rail line, the East-West Corridor site, and the videos about the road improvements illustrate a park-and-ride station at Airline/Williams and a smaller station at Airline/Lester Ave. jeffschwartz, do you know of any maps outlining all of the rail corridors in the New Orleans area, who owns them, and their current state of usage ?