Early next year, the real estate development firm that helped transform the Warehouse District into one of the city's most desirable neighborhoods will begin construction of a new apartment building at Constance and Poeyfarre streets on what is now an empty lot. The building, under development by HRI Properties, will rise four stories above ground-level parking and include 76 apartments. Eighty percent of the them will rent at market rates, and 20 percent will be supported by tax credits for low-income renters.
Josh Collen, vice president for development at HRI Properties, said the apartment building will restore rental housing to an area now dominated by condominiums. He said the market-rate units will fetch $1,100 to $1,700 a month.
The Industrial Development Board agreed Tuesday to issue bonds for construction of the apartment building, but not without provoking a grievance from a government watchdog group. The nonpartisan Bureau of Government Research objected that the board scheduled a public hearing about the bond issuance on Tuesday -- after having given final approval for the bonds at its meeting on Nov. 13. "Our concern is with having public hearings after decisions are made," said Janet Howard, BGR's president. "It renders the whole concept of a public hearing absurd."
Howard said BGR had no position on the apartment project itself, but simply took issue with the inverted vote. Jimmie Thorns, the board's president, conceded at the meeting that Howard was "absolutely correct" and vowed to hold public hearings in advance of final votes in the future.
The Industrial Development Board also granted preliminary approval on Tuesday to the issuance of bonds for three major commercial projects, including a high-rise medical complex across the street from the proposed Louisiana State University teaching hospital.
B+W Development sought $50 million in bonds to build an office tower topped by extended-stay penthouses for executives at 2000 Tulane Ave. A brick building owned by the LSU Health Sciences Center Foundation now occupies that property.
Dr. Larry Hollier, chancellor of the health sciences center, said those developers had expressed interest in buying the property from the foundation but that LSU's board of supervisors had not approved the sale. He said the developers were not building the 14-story tower on behalf of the university.
The board also approved the issuance of bonds to refurbish the Executive Plaza, a damaged office building on Lake Forest Boulevard in eastern New Orleans, and to build a film studio on Mardi Gras Boulevard in Algiers. Wayne Read, president of Armada Studios and Mardi Gras Studios, sought $30 million in bonds to build a studio that can support as many as five movie productions at a time. He said the film industry has exploded in Louisiana but that little infrastructure has grown up around it.
Source: TimesPicayune.com