NEW ORLEANS, LA - Vacant for more than 40 years since the campus was demolished, the site of historic St. Aloysius High School opens this week as 49 apartment residences in a building complex that echoes the architecture of the French Quarter just across the street.
The Aloysius Apartments, HRI Properties' latest development, offers of a mix of 21 workforce and 28 market rate apartments. About 40% of the units were already rented on opening day, said HRI project manager Chris Clement, with the first residents scheduled to occupy their new units by the weekend.
All apartments feature stainless steel kitchen appliances, washers and dryers, energy efficient heating and air conditioning and ceiling fans. Each unit will be afforded a covered parking space under the building.
The Aloysius building features two wings of four stories each flanking a central courtyard and connected by a one-story structure fronting Esplanade Avenue. The lower connecting wing helps to create the appearance of a typical French Quarter streetscape.
In addition to a management office, a business center for residents and a central courtyard, the building also contains 1,400 square feet of ground floor commercial space on the corner of Esplanade and Rampart that will be leased to serve both the residents of the Aloysius apartments and the general public.
"This location is situated at the nexus of four distinct and historic neighborhoods," said Clement, "so, in consultation with the area neighborhood organizations, HRI took extra steps at no small expense to be sensitive to the architecture surrounding our building." The location at the corner of Esplanade Avenue and Rampart Street touches four of New Orleans's most historic neighborhoods—the French Quarter, Treme, Esplanade Ridge and Faubourg Marigny.
St. Aloysius Boys High School was founded in 1892 and operated by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. For nearly 80 years, it educated young men, with notable alumni that included mayors, legislators, and New Orleans cultural icons. After St. Aloysius High School combined with Cor Jesu High School and relocated its campus, the original St. Aloysius buildings were demolished in 1969.
During the ensuring 40 years, the land remained vacant. Although a number of speculative projects were proposed, none came to fruition until HRI Properties acquired the land to construct apartments.
Including land acquisition and utilities, the project cost totaled about $16.8 million. Funding sources included Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds from the City of New Orleans and from the Louisiana Office of Community Development; Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) from the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency which were placed by Hudson Housing Capital to generate an equity investment in the project ; and construction and permanent debt financing from Capital One Bank, N.A.
The Design-Build Contractor for the development was Woodward Design+Build, a privately held firm founded in 1924 and based in New Orleans. HRI's in-house architectural firm, HCI Architecture, served as the architect of record for the project. The Aloysius Apartments will be managed by HRI Management, which oversees 32 apartment and condominium properties in 10 states for its parent company and for third-party owners.
About HRI Properties
Based in New Orleans, HRI Properties (HRI) is a full-service real estate development company and a national leader in the adaptive reuse of historic structures. HRI's mission is revitalizing cities by creating diverse, vibrant, sustainable communities. Since its founding in 1982, HRI has completed 47 large-scale projects, which total 3,996 apartment and condominium units, 3,301 hotel rooms, and 696,714 square feet of retail and office space with a total development cost of more than $1.2 billion. For more information, go to www.hriproperties.com.