Historic Dew Drop Inn Prepares to Reopen Following Million-Dollar Renovation

27th November 2023   · 

By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer

The tale is now the stuff of legend. The great Little Richard, who was in New Orleans for a recording session, was frustrating producer Bumps Blackwell, who wasn’t thrilled with the syrupy ballads Richard was offering.

Frustrated, the group of musicians drifted across Lasalle Street to the Dew Drop Inn, one of the most important R&B and jazz clubs in New Orleans, a swinging hotel/bar/nightclub/cafe that hosted the greatest Black musicians of the day.

Richard commandeered a piano at the Dew Drop and began pounding out a raucous, bawdy rave-up that he’d had as part of his live shows for a while. Blackwell and others loved it, and – following some lyrical changes to make it PG-13 – “Tutti Frutti” became one of the greatest songs in rock ’n’ roll history.

A decade and a half later, Richard would cut the song “Dew Drop Inn” for his 1970 album “The Rill Thing” as a tribute to and thank you for the New Orleans club that helped him become one of the creators of rock ’n’ roll:

“Down at the Dew Drop Inn/You meet all your fine friends/ Baby do drop in/I’ll meet you at the Dew Drop Inn.”

There are many stories about the Dew Drop Inn’s glorious heyday as one of the most prestigious and influential loci of Black music for several decades in the mid-20th century. Owned by visionary Big Easy entrepreneur Frank G. Painia, the Dew Drop not only served as a petri dish for classic American music, but it also flouted Louisiana’s Jim Crow segregation laws by brazenly welcoming Black and white patrons, and the inn became a vital part of the New Orleans community, commerce, economy and culture. Numerous civil rights activists also gathered at the hotel and club, where they strategized their efforts to dismantle racial oppression.

After shuttering its doors by the early 1970s, however, the property at 2836 Lasalle Street went through a series of occupants and underwent several changes in uses. But none of those relaunches or renovations could gain any traction, and Dew Drop fell into disrepair before completely shutting down with the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

But now, thanks to an ambitious, determined investor and new owner, the once-great Dew Drop Inn is on the verge of a remarkable revival that those behind its rising from the ashes hope will harken back to the club and hotel’s chaotic, vibrant and influential glory days.

At the source of the property’s rebirth is New Orleans native and local real-estate developer Curtis Doucette Jr., whose business activity and investments often focus on places with special importance to New Orleans’ Black cultural, social and economic history. That focus spurred him to purchase the Dew Drop property in 2021 and quickly set about renovating and rehabbing the site, with the goal of opening it again as a hotel, music venue, night club and social gathering place that harkens back to the Dew Drop’s peak under Painia.

When completed and opened, the building will offer 17 hotel rooms, including three suites; a restaurant that will serve authentic New Orleans cuisine and could be leased out; a 410-person music venue; and a pool that will be open to the community.

The new edition of the Dew Drop will retain most of the original hotel corridors, balconies and doorways, and the furnishings, artworks and other facets of the facility will harken back to mid-20th-century fashion and design trends. Overall, Doucette and his partners hope to replicate the original Dew Drop as closely as possible while also adding modern touches and amenities.

Doucette said the entire project will cost roughly $11 million, with $6 million of it going to the construction costs. He said financing for the project has come from a variety of resources, including $3.6 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funding, and tax credits for new businesses and historical properties, “and old fashioned equity.”

Doucette said raising money from private and commercial sources was relatively easy because as a project, revitalizing such an important, historic location almost sells itself.

“If you can’t raise money for the Dew Drop Inn, you can’t raise money for anything,” he said. “I’ve never had a project that’s so beloved as this one is.”

He added that when recruiting development partners, investors and other participants for the renovation, he required that each person that was brought about had passion for and pride in the location and its legacy. “You’ve got to have love for the project,” he said. “You’ve got to have reverence for the project and for what it stands for if you want to work on this project.”

Doucette and his partners worked closely with the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, a public agency created by the state in 1968 as a vehicle for the revitalization of underinvested locations throughout the city.

Brenda M. Breaux, NORA executive director, said her organization is providing $900,000 in permanent debt financing for the Dew Drop site at a substantially-below-market interest rate. NORA expanded its Commercial Corridor Gap Financing Program to include Lasalle Street, a move that will boost redevelopment of properties along that corridor, possibly including the Dew Drop location.

Breaux noted that the Dew Drop “is a site of great importance to the city, state and nation,” adding that “[i]ts contributions to Black history and music are well-documented.” As a result, she said, NORA wanted to play a key role in providing technical assistance and financing for the project, partnering with the state of Louisiana and private financiers.

But, even with the Dew Drop site nearing completion and its grand opening closing in, there’s still much work to be done, Breaux said,

“The historic restoration of this property has eliminated slum and blight conditions and is already contributing to further revitalization and confidence in the Lasalle Street corridor,” she said. “However, NORA recognizes that the restoration of the building alone will not make the project a success. As we approach the grand opening, NORA continues to work with and support the developer to ensure that both the hotel and entertainment businesses are positioned to thrive in the future.”

The architect hired to undertake the planning, design and construction aspects was Studio Kiro, a New Orleans-based firm headed by principal architect Miwako Hattori. Ryan Gootee General Contractors was selected to undertake the construction work, and company Vice President of Communications Kristian Sonnier said his firm was excited to tackle the project.

“This is the kind of stuff we like to do,” Sonnier said at a pre-opening tour event given to local business leaders over the summer. “We do a lot of these types of projects, but when we have the opportunity to preserve the musical culture of the city, we get kind of geeked out,” Sonnier said. “I’m eager to see live music here and eat at the restaurant.”

Doucette said the project’s construction operations have been completed, and all necessary permitting for the revived building and business has been obtained. A date for the club’s grand opening hasn’t been set yet, but Doucette and his partners are aiming for an event in December.

Once open, the new Dew Drop will serve multiple purposes – first, as an active, in-demand hotel, club and pool that caters to all sectors of tourists and locals, and second, as a historical preservation and education center that can act as a cultural repository of days gone by.

In fact, each guest room will be named after one of the music and cultural legends who stayed at or performed in the original Dew Drop Inn, with each room having vintage displays, memorabilia and treasures honoring that particular artist.

“A big part of what we intend to do is make part of it a museum of the different artists who came through here,” Doucette said.

Local civic leaders are equally excited about the revival of the Dew Drop Inn and what it could mean to the community.

“The historic Dew Drop Inn was essential to the cultural fabric of New Orleans, with iconic Black musicians such as Ray Charles, Little Richard and Fats Domino performing in its renowned music venue,” said District B City Councilwoman Lesli Harris. “The revitalization of this gem in District B (specifically Central City) will benefit residents, tourists and inspire local musicians as they continue the time-honored, musical and artistic traditions for generations to come.”

Doucette said one of his biggest goals with the project is making the Dew Drop a beloved and vital part of the local community once again.

“I certainly hope the community will embrace it like it’s theirs,” Doucette said. “There are a lot of people who have a deep ownership of the Dew Drop. There’s a sense of pride with it.”

This article originally published in the November 27, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

 

The New Orleans Six Flags site rotted for years. A developer just leased it and has big plans.

Bayou Phoenix took control of the 227-acre property on Wednesday; plans call for $500 million in amenities, attractions.

By STEPHANIE RIEGEL | Staff writer
Oct 25, 2023

The yearslong effort to redevelop the former Six Flags amusement park in New Orleans East took a major step forward Wednesday as the 227-acre property was formally turned over to Bayou Phoenix, the local group selected to tackle the ambitious project.

At a ceremony held during the annual meeting of the World Waterpark Association at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Troy Henry, who leads the Bayou Phoenix consortium, signed the lease to cheers from residents and applause from public officials.

Henry's plan is to turn the blighted property into a sprawling complex of water parks, youth sporting facilities, two hotels, an 8.5-acre clear lake for swimming, a movie studio, amphitheater, retail outlets and other amenities.

And while the group hasn't yet secured funding or partners to operate the attractions, Henry and city officials said signing the lease was an important step in the process of eventually bringing the area back to life.

“Today is just the beginning. There is an incredible amount of work that needs to be done, but we are here for it,” said Jeff Schwartz, economic development director for the City of New Orleans.

Revitalizing the property, which was flooded during Hurricane Katrina and lay fallow and rusting ever since, has been a top priority for Mayor LaToya Cantrell. In 2021, Bayou Phoenix won the right to pursue the project after a separate development group backed by Drew Brees withdrew its application.

Over the past two years, the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, which controls the land, has worked with Bayou Phoenix and other agencies and officials to navigate a series of complicated ownership and legal hurdles in order to reach the point of signing a lease.

Now that the document is finalized and Bayou Phoenix has control of the property, Henry said his group can begin the difficult task of figuring out how to turn their vision into reality.

“We just got the keys, so now we have to assess the property because we need to understand if the master plan we have designed can physically be located in the way we have laid it out,” Henry said.

A long way to go

While today’s ceremony was a significant milestone, many questions about the project remain.

Over the next 12 months, the developers plan to assess the site and clear it out, demolishing the rusting old amusement rides and removing junk from the property. The Bayou Phoenix master plan will also likely change during that process as the partners get a better understanding of the land and determine what is feasible.

Henry’s partner in Bayou Phoenix is Thomas Tubre, who owns a construction company.

“They do all the technical stuff, all the crazy stuff most people cannot do,” Henry said. “So, once they get in there, we may have to move some of the components around. They’ll be the same components, but maybe not in the same place.”

Bayou Phoenix can also now begin negotiating with outside operators to sublease the various components of the development, such as the water park, hotels and sports facilities — that they will run.  

The developers have had initial discussions with several operators, including nationally known brands that are interested in taking on various pieces of the project, Henry said. Because Bayou Phoenix did not have a signed lease agreement until Tuesday, however, it has not engaged in serious talks or, even, secured letters of intent with any specific partners.

For those same reasons, the group has not secured any financing commitments yet. The price tag for the project has previously been mentioned as ranging from $500 million to nearly $1 billion, though Henry said Tuesday that it will likely be closer to $500 million.

Of that, an estimated 20%, or $100 million, is expected to come from city, state and federal funds, including the possible creation of a special taxing district and “other creative, innovative government programs,” Henry said.

The rest would come from private investors and bank loans.

Milestones

Bayou Phoenix signed a 50-year lease with NORA, a state agency, agreeing to pay $1 a year for the right to develop the land. The group is obligated to hit certain development milestones along the way, though it can ask for extensions if it is running behind.

Its first deadline is 12 months from the date of the lease signing, October 25, by which time it must have a sublease in place with an operator for at least one component of the project. That portion of the project must be completed in early 2027, according to the lease.

The developers will be considered in default if they do not hit the milestones, though the lease contains clauses that allow for extensions.

Bayou Phoenix has already spent more than $1 million getting the project to where it is today, Henry said, and he expects it will spend several million dollars more over the next few months as it begins working on the property and the plans in more details.

Current plans for the project take up about 160 acres of the site, not the entire parcel. Henry said depending on how the buildout goes, Bayou Phoenix could expand in one direction or another.

We’re going to do everything we can to make sure this project happens,” he said. “We’re excited about it. this is something very unique for our state and our city.”

Email Stephanie Riegel at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Resilience Playbook in Gentilly Offers Model for Flood-Prone Cities

The Gentilly Resilience District is fortifying the hurricane-battered New Orleans neighborhood against natural disaster

BY  JUNE 7, 2023 8:00 AM

The New Orleans residential neighborhood of Gentilly, on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain, is bracketed by water on three sides, with bayous and canals snaking along the neighborhood’s edges. 

Because of its proximity to the water, the low-lying region of the city was swallowed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Stories abound of the neighborhood being under water for months after the initial storm, of frantic residents escaping to higher ground, and not coming back for years, if ever.

And yet, 18 years after one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history, Gentilly is actually well positioned to withstand further damage, even as it confronts rising sea levels and stronger storms. That’s thanks to the city’s aggressive resilience measures, which may serve as a model for other cities around the world.

Gentilly’s approach has been multi-pronged, focusing on both top-down infrastructure programs, as well as more on-the-ground perspectives, funded by a variety of federal and local programs. Crucially, in addition to public infrastructure, Gentilly has enlisted residents in the fight for adaptation.  Gentilly owners have transformed their low-lying yards into rain gardens designed to collect stormwater, and repaved driveways and patios with material that absorbs runoff, creating a landscape naturally prepared for intermittent flooding. 

These adaptations were made possible by the Gentilly Resilience District, a City of New Orleans initiative to build, pay and advocate for homeowner resilience, in partnership with the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA), which manages city-owned property.

In fact, much of NORA’s property inventory resulted from the surge in voluntary buyouts by the federal government following Katrina, said Seth Knudsen, NORA’s chief of strategy, programs and projects. These buyouts paved the way for NORA’s investments in the area, while also contextualizing the resolution of the residents that remained.

But while the Gentilly Resilience District program is unique, Gentilly itself is fairly representative of New Orleans on the whole in terms of its potential, its challenges and the racial and socio-economic makeup of the population, said Knudsen.

As a low- to moderate-income neighborhood, Gentilly homeowners typically can’t afford resilient investments on their own. Increasing a property’s water storage capacity, for example, to withstand just the first inch of rainwater typically costs up to $25,0000, said Knudsen. Under the resilience district program, homeowners can instead apply for aid, which NORA provides on a rolling basis. As of April 2023, the agency had assisted 193 homes with adaptive projects. 

Similar resilience districts and city-specific organizations have cropped up across the world. Copenhagen boasts a climate-resilient neighborhood strategy while San Francisco has its own resiliency plans. Closer to New Orleans, Southeast Florida has discussed elevating Route 1, which connects mainland Florida with the Florida Keys, so that residents can evacuate during storms.  

The distinction is that instead of focusing on climate change as a purely environmental problem, with environmental solutions, these resilience programs tend to focus on the people who inhabit cities and will therefore bear the consequences of climate change. Gentilly, as the city’s first resilience district, serves as a model to the remainder of New Orleans—and to other cities across the world more broadly—about how to harness new and existing government programs to leverage community engagement and prepare for the future. Efforts in Gentilly have gone above and beyond building codes and planning bureaucracies to set the bar for how cities can put resilience at the forefront of neighborhood infrastructure.

“Nobody’s really, I think, willing to say, ‘Ah that’s it, it’s time to pack our bags and go,’ ” Brittany Ryan, director of responsible investing at Nuveen, told Commercial Observer in April. “It’s more, ‘What can we invest in the communities that we love so much to enhance their resilience and adapt them so we can live here and future generations can live here under a new, climate change[d] world?’ ”

Perhaps nowhere better reflects such passion for place than New Orleans, a city whose resilience has been tested not just by Hurricane Katrina but also by 2012’s Hurricane Isaac, both of which left an indelible mark. In the decade since, climate change has only upped the city’s risks, with both sea levels and storm intensity on the rise. New Orleans’ proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, as well as various tributaries, define both the city’s geography and potential for disaster. 

“Louisiana can expect to see Gulf waters rise by two to seven feet over the next century, the highest rate in the U.S. and among the highest on Earth,” reads the wall text for the Hurricane Katrina exhibit at the Louisiana State Presbytère Museum.

That museum, built in a house battered by Katrina, epitomizes the ways in which New Orleans cities and their interconnected communities are here for the long haul. And everybody, in every New Orleans neighborhood, shares the challenges from storms and sea level rise, said NORA’s Knudsen. 

NORA calls for the same property standards across New Orleans to protect homes from flooding, reduce stormwater runoff and meet energy efficiency standards. Currently, NORA’s residential buildings and new construction developments must fulfill certain storm protection according to a program called FORTIFIED, which sets home protection standards beyond building codes—making it the country’s first agency to do so. 

NORA also requires its buildings to meet energy efficiency standards under the Energy Star three rubric, and to store at least 1,000 gallons of stormwater on-site so that in an event of extreme rain, NORA-funded properties will be better equipped to both reduce and endure severe flooding. 

Neighborhoods differ in the type and level of protective investments, in order to match its vulnerabilities. “Resilience isn’t contingent upon the neighborhood and where you are,” said Brenda Breaux, executive director at NORA. “It’s the type of intervention that you might place in one particular neighborhood that may not be the same that you would place in another.”

Gentilly has been at the forefront of resilience efforts partially due to the level of funding it received following the damage it endured in Katrina. Levees failed in more than 50 locations during the hurricane, unleashing Lake Pontchartrain waters, which surged into Gentilly, as well as other low-lying neighborhoods like Treme, Baywater and the Ninth Ward.

It wasn’t until after Hurricane Isaac, however, that the City of New Orleans applied for the National Disaster Resilience, which was granted in 2016, providing $141 million in  funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to put towards resilience endeavors.

The funding gave birth to the Gentilly Resilience District for Gentilly in particular, which was eligible for funding because of the flooding it had sustained, explained Breaux. New Orleans also allocated roughly $20 million of HUD funding to NORA, which implemented the previously-mentioned program focused on homeowners and their individual properties, officially called the Community Adaptation Program (CAP). 

That’s how those permeable paver driveways and rain gardens came to exist, improving the neighborhood’s ability to deal with rainfall and flooding. “Through the Community Adaptation Program, we’ve been able to achieve storage capacity of the first inch-plus of rain at each of these home sites,” said Knudsen.

NORA likewise allocates other federal grants — even those that don’t specifically require resilience investments — toward corresponding upgrades, said Knudsen. These funds may include the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Entitlement Program or CDBG Disaster Recovery funds, both of which go through HUD. 

In addition to Gentilly’s environmental history, its topography stands out, said Knudsen. Varying elevation across the city has created an uneven playing field — both literally and metaphorically — through ranging climatic risks and allocated resources. Higher-elevated neighborhoods are located along the lake and riverfront, whereas neighborhoods like Broadmore and the northern half of the Lower Ninth Ward are closer to sea level.

Sections of Gentilly fall into both categories. “[Gentilly] has the sort of full topography of the city within it,” said Knudsen. “There’s high ground, there’s low ground and it’s its own drainage basin. And so it makes a lot of sense to focus stormwater runoff and mitigation efforts within that drainage basin from a comprehensive approach.”

That’s why the resiliency district also incorporates the neighborhood’s natural environment, while looking to revitalize larger neighborhood spaces and surroundings, City-owned, undeveloped parcels of land in Gentilly — like golf courses and wetlands — have created opportunities for those larger-scale water mitigation projects. “Wetlands are good carbon sinks,” Hyon Rah, former director of ESG consultancy at Savills, told Commercial Observer in April, “but also they work as a buffer against storm surges and other extreme weathers.” 

One such project is the retrofitting of the Dillard Wetlands, a plan to utilize 27 acres of woodlands with the triple goal of stormwater management, increase biodiversity and creating a usable community green space with educational, recreational and social opportunities—a perfect encapsulation of the holistic efforts exemplified by the resilience district. 

These public opportunities also highlight the importance of partnerships in resilience efforts, whether that’s between neighborhoods and organizations, like Gentilly and NORA, or between the public and private sectors. “We can’t maximize our potential and reduce stormwater runoff and the negative effects that go with it if the public sector is still expected to manage all of the water that falls within the city,” said Knudsen, noting that the bulk of the responsibility still falls on the public sector.

Back at the Louisiana State Presbytère Museum, an interactive exhibit highlights both the importance of wetlands and the ways in which rising sea levels are inhibiting them. Erosion has jeopardized Louisiana’s marshes and their protective properties.

So, resilience efforts in Gentilly are twofold: They’re not only preparing houses for climate change, but also helping the environment adapt to climate change’s impact. These ventures run parallel and happen contemporaneously, said Breaux. “Every neighborhood is a puzzle,” said Knudsen.

In Gentilly, yet another puzzle piece has clicked into place. While the resilience district focuses on the built and natural environment, other endeavors indirectly fuel the softer, less tangible characteristics of a resilient community. Take those rain gardens, for example. They not only address rainwater, they can also enhance property values by providing green space, or offer a place for community members to sit and study or simply enjoy a cup of coffee, said Knudson. 

These softer facets that create community — along with social networks, families, churches, neighborhood associations and individual family resilience — contribute to a neighborhood’s resilience, said Knudsen. They don’t explicitly relate to what his organization deals with in day-to-day operations, but they’re implicitly part of the built environment.

Gentilly’s residents are “the ones that need to be built up,” said Breaux. 

And at the end of the day, they’re the largest stakeholders, and the ones left holding the bag,  Breaux added. “Five years out, 10 years out, it’s going to be those citizens. ” 

As for what the resilience district indicates for Gentilly’s future, people have to see the impact of the investments to believe them. Much of real estate innovation happens behind the scenes in design, engineering and construction — phases that aren’t typically in the public eye, said Knudsen. 

But for the residents of Gentilly, they can see the results. When it rains, water now flows to where it’s directed, because of the city’s investment in stormwater management on residential lots and around the drainage canal. “The proof for them is there,” said Knudsen. “The people that have lived there for a long time know that it’s different now.”

Anna Staropoli can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Developers Close Financing for St. Bernard Circle Apartments

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At the St. Bernard Circle Apartments groundbreaking (from L to R): Evette Hester, HANO executive director; Richard Winder, LHC board member; Nyree Ramsey of Ujamaa Economic Development Corporation; Kristyna Ford, NORA board member; Tyra Johnson, Brown City housing director; New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell; Brenda Breaux, NORA executive director; New Orleans City Councilmember Freddie King; Mark Boucree of Hope Federal Credit Union; State Rep. Alonzo Knox; Marcy Delatte of NORP, Josh Collen with HRI Communities; Paul Irons of NORP; Seth Knudsen of NORA; Cody Marshall of the IRWT; Annie Clark of Finance New Orleans; Samantha Bopp representing U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy; Demetric Mercadel representing U.S. Rep. Troy Carter; Iam Tucker of ILSI Engineering; and Rochelle Trotter of the IRWT

NEW ORLEANS – On Oct. 24, HRI Communities and New Orleans Restoration Properties announced that they have closed financing on their joint venture development of the St. Bernard Circle Apartments located at 1431 St. Bernard Avenue. The developers said they will immediately move forward with construction overseen by Landis Construction Co. The $22 million project will develop a new apartment community on a location identified as an important “development node” by the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the City of New Orleans. The site is across the street from the Circle Food Store. 

“My administration and partners are aggressively working to ensure all New Orleanians are provided with opportunities for reliable, sustainable and affordable housing,” said Mayor LaToya Cantrell. “The Office of Housing Policy and Community Development is continuing these efforts through a $41 million investment in subsidies that will fund 14 housing construction projects, as well as $32 million from various funding sources that will go toward development gap financing.”

“We are thrilled to immediately begin construction on the St. Bernard Circle Apartments. This long underutilized but notable location is begging for reinvestment, and we have some exciting plans in store that will offer beautiful, new mixed-income housing opportunities, with a priority on resiliency, sustainability and preserving local culture” said HRI Communities President Josh Collen.

HRI’s project overview includes 51 one- and two-bedroom apartments within a four-story, 56,000-square-foot new construction building with 40 long-term affordable apartments offering rents at or below 60% AMI. Of the 40 affordable apartments, 16 will count toward the one-for-one ongoing replacement unit requirement for the HUD Iberville/Treme Choice Neighborhoods Grant. Plans also incorporate two ground floor retail bays totaling 1,800 square feet intended for small, local and minority businesses. 

Additional amenities include off-street parking, a fitness center, community room, landscaped outdoor community space, bike parking, and in-unit washers, dryers and dishwashers. The project is designed to be Energy Star-certified and to meet the disaster-resiliency and sustainability criteria of Enterprise Green Communities and Fortified Multifamily Gold standards. There are also plans to highlight community arts and culture through mural opportunities and a neighborhood-appropriate-sized stage in the outdoor community space along N. Robertson St.

“Louisiana Housing Corporation is proud to be a part of a project that will revitalize a once-vacant lot into a prosperous living space that will serve its community,” said LHC Interim Executive Director Marjorianna Willman. “We are elated to see developers and contractors utilizing disaster resiliency techniques that will protect these developments and its residents. St. Bernard Circle Apartments will embody Fortified features that we encourage all builders to consider.”

The financing for the St. Bernard Circle Apartments renovation includes an award of 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credits from the Louisiana Housing Corporation and an award of HOME funds from the City of New Orleans Office of Community Development. Additional financial partners include Hudson Housing Capital as the Low Income Housing Tax Credit and 45L Tax Credit investor, Capital One N.A. as the construction lender, Hope Federal Credit Union as the permanent lender, the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority as the ground lessor and provider of Ford Foundation funding, the Housing Authority of New Orleans as an operating subsidy provider and Finance New Orleans as the issuer of a PILOT property tax abatement.

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Renovation of blighted firehouse to begin in 2024, developers say

 

The firehouse redevelopment team updated the Delachaise Neighborhood Association at the group’s November meeting about the plans for the blighted firehouse on Louisiana Avenue.

The historic firehouse will be renovated to include seven units of permanently affordable housing upstairs, with an early childhood education center on the ground floor. The early childhood education center will also occupy the property’s outdoor space and an “accessory structure” behind the main building. 

The city owns the property and is leasing it to the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) for a 99-year term; NORA is currently managing the property but will sublease it to the development partner, who will put the building and surrounding space back into use. 

The developers for the project are Alembic Community DevelopmentHome by Hand, Studio Kiro (the architecture firm overseeing the restoration of the Dew Drop Inn on LaSalle Street) and CDW Services as the general contractors. 

Members of the Alembic development team as well as NORA representative Seth Knudsen gave the updates on the project. Alembic team member Jonathan Leit was optimistic about the physical state of the building.

“There’s always work to be done but, compared to other buildings we’ve worked on, it’s in pretty good shape,” Leit said. 

The overall cost of the renovations is expected to be around $4 million, and Leit said that they hope to have funding secured by the end of next year, with construction beginning in 2024 and the apartments and childhood education center ready to open in 2025.

So far, a partner has not been chosen to run the early childhood center, and it is unclear what the program will be like or what age group it will serve. Jonathan Leit said they expect a mix of publicly and privately funded tuition for the childcare center, citing the city’s expansion of the City Seats program earlier this year. 

Upstairs, the building will have seven units of permanently affordable housing, with four one-bedroom apartments and three two-bedroom apartments. One unit will be designated for a household earning below 50% of the area median income (currently $40,900 a year); five for households earning below 60% AMI ($49,080) and one for a household earning below 80% AMI ($65,440).

NORA representative Seth Knudsen also mentioned NORA is “talking with YAYA about a public art project,” to make the site more visually appealing before and during construction. 

Many residents in attendance were concerned about parking at the site. The building has legacy zoning, meaning that it does not have, and will not have, designated off-street parking for the tenants or for parents of the children attending the childcare center.

There is a vacant lot beside the firehouse property that NORA is “moving forward with acquiring,” according to Knudsen; however, he reported that the site cannot be turned into parking for the residents of the firehouse or parents of the children attending daycare at 2314 Louisiana.

However, the issue that residents repeatedly raised was that of parking and congestion. Knudsen and the Alembic team says that the project is still getting off the ground, but that they are looking at possible solutions, such as staggering drop off and pickup timing for the childhood education center.

“We’re going to do as much plotting and planning as we can to look to mitigate these impacts,” Knudsen said.

Reporter Jesse Baum can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..