Vacant land is seen where the River District development is planned in New Orleans on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023.
Traffic passes vacant land where the River District is planned in New Orleans on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023.
Vacant land is seen where a Top Golf franchise has been proposed in the River District development in New Orleans on Nov. 3, 2023.
A piling sticks out of the ground in a vacant lot where the River District development is planned in New Orleans on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023.
Plans are seen for the River District development in New Orleans.
The New Orleans Music and Heritage Experience building is seen in a rendering at the planned River District development in New Orleans.
Double fences surround the blighted Market Street power plant in New Orleans on Nov. 18, 2022.
Vacant land is seen where the River District development is planned in New Orleans on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023.
Traffic passes vacant land where the River District is planned in New Orleans on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023.
Vacant land is seen where a Top Golf franchise has been proposed in the River District development in New Orleans on Nov. 3, 2023.
A piling sticks out of the ground in a vacant lot where the River District development is planned in New Orleans on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023.
The River District, the neighborhood planned for the Mississippi riverfront in New Orleans, will soon have earth movers trundling across the empty property flanking the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center as $26 million in street work begins to pave the way for millions of square feet of apartments, offices, shops and stores.
It has taken more than 2½ year since the contract was awarded to get to the point where the first dirt will fly. Project leaders say the delay was due to complex lease negotiations with the convention center, which owns the approximately 50-acre development site, as well to talks with City Hall over permits and other plans.
“This whole process has taken a lot longer than anybody thought,” said CEO Chris Maguire of Cypress Equities, which is leading the project with local real estate developer Louis Lauricella. But, he added, “the city of New Orleans hasn’t seen a project like this in decades, and we want to get it right.”
Plans are seen for the River District development in New Orleans.
Indeed, a project of this scope — a built-from-scratch $1 billion-plus neighborhood on prime urban waterfront acreage — is rare anywhere in the United States. And while progress has been made on some key elements, such as securing a key corporate tenant, some other entertainment-focused parts of the project have stalled or changed their focus.
So far, River District officials have announced progress on two fronts:
Other proposals that might give the new district a distinctive character have yet to gain traction.
The Music and Heritage Experience, a museum concept that aimed to do for New Orleans what the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has done for Cleveland, was touted as a 120,000-square-foot venue directly across from the upriver end of the convention center. But its backers failed to secure $75 million from the Legislature this year, money that is essential to kick-start the $160 million project.
Chris Beary, who leads the music museum development team, said the group hopes for success when a new Legislature meets in 2024.
“If we made a mistake in the last year, I’d say that it was that we didn’t talk to enough people,” he said. “We need to make the case that this is a music museum that will benefit the whole state and will pay for itself over and over.”
He pointed to the $92 million cost of the I.M. Pei-designed Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which opened in 1995; economic studies have shown that it generates about $200 million a year for Cleveland. MoPOP in Seattle and the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee, are other examples of what a music museum could do for the River District and New Orleans, Beary said.
The New Orleans Music and Heritage Experience building is seen in a rendering at the planned River District development in New Orleans.
Another River District proposal facing obstacles is a proposed soccer stadium and entertainment venue, which developers have proposed for land adjacent to the Crescent City Connection; the land is now used as a convention center parking lot.
Michael Sawaya, the convention center president and CEO who has final say, has thrown cold water on the stadium idea.
“I’m looking for something a little more exciting,” Sawaya said.
The United Soccer League, which informally is the farm league to Major League Soccer, typically takes a modular approach to building stadiums, starting out at capacity of about 5,000 and adding as the fan base grows.
Sawaya wasn’t keen on this approach and was colored by his experience in San Antonio, Texas, where a North American Soccer League team failed in 2015 when he was running the convention center there, according to several people familiar with the discussion. Sawaya would not comment on whether this influenced him.
James Guin, a member of the United Soccer League New Orleans development team, said the league’s urban center stadiums have been more successful than those on the edge of town, and that his team remains hopeful about the River District site.
“Our success building teams in other markets, coupled with feedback from the local soccer community, have led us to believe that a multi-use, right-sized stadium within the River District development would be the best scenario for everyone,” he said.
Soccer would occupy the stadium only about 17 times a year, so its use as an entertainment venue might be more of a factor, especially as plans for live entertainment elsewhere in the River District have been dropped.
It had long been part of the vision for the entertainment district that the Market Street power plant would be an integral part, although it isn’t owned by the convention center. Previous owner Joe Jaeger had a deal in place with Live Nation for a venue there, and Cypress Equities, Lauricella and their partners said they planned a live event space when they bought it in 2021.
But Maguire said the market has shifted in the past couple of years and the live event venue, as well as plans for a boutique hotel and office space, have been dropped from the River District.
Double fences surround the blighted Market Street power plant in New Orleans on Nov. 18, 2022.
“What we really think makes sense there is entertainment-based retail and experiential concepts that are popping up all over the world,” Maguire said. “It’s concepts like the indoor putting, ax throwing, shuffleboard — all of those type of experiential entertainment.”
He pointed to Area15 in Las Vegas as the kind of idea in mind for the space. It is similar in size to the power plant — about 250,000 square feet — and has a variety of entertainment such as laser tag and virtual reality experiences, as well as art installations, bars and restaurants.
Maguire said details on these new tenants are expected to be forthcoming in the New Year.
Another part of the project that is yet to be determined is the residential makeup of the neighborhood. The consortium’s original proposal, which was cited by the convention center’s board as a major factor in winning the contract, was the promise to build 1,100 residential units, of which about 450 would be priced for lower income renters.
Now, the residential target is 900, with a proportional drop in “affordable” units, said Shawn Barney, managing director of consortium member CLB Porter. He said the group likely will build in 300-unit phases, and that the timing will depend on public subsidy.
The Louisiana Housing Corp. would look favorably on the River District development in allocating some of its last federal grant money, Executive Director Marjorianna Willman said. The project fits its preferred criteria of being centrally located, near jobs and amenities, she said.
But even if River District secures the maximum Louisiana Housing Corp. funding, Barney said raising the rest of the capital to move the housing development forward will be “challenging.”
Email Anthony McAuley [email protected].
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As first work starts on River District neighborhood, a look at what's next – NOLA.com
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