Posted Nov 26, 2014, 5:30 PM
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life is good
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: all over
Posts: 2,301
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See, I feel like downtown is just getting started as a residential neighborhood. And it feels like a bit of an office resurgence is coming as well. Difficulty filling retail right now shouldn't mean we get substandard design. Parking garages need retail to not be a total streetscape killer.
It just seems like once all the UC apts are delivered (and with ongoing new construction) that there will be a much higher demand for walkable retail DT. We should build it
Multiple projects take shape on lower St. Charles
http://neworleanscitybusiness.com/bl...er+St.+Charles
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A mile-long stretch of Uptown’s premier thoroughfare is transforming as business owners and developers see new potential in properties they say have been underutilized.
An assortment of projects in the 10-block stretch of St. Charles Avenue between Josephine Street and the Pontchartrain Expressway overpass are either in development or under construction. Some are merely improvements on existing businesses, but others involve a complete change of use.
“Considering the location, I think some people might be asking why there isn’t more activity and why it hasn’t come sooner?” said Jonathan Shaver, an agent with Re/Max Commercial Brokers. “It is a central location that has historic building stock asking for new life.”
In the past six months, Shaver has been involved in three transactions in the neighborhood, including a pair of properties along Prytania Street that are being renovated for residential use....
“The activity in the past few months is similar to what has been going on a few blocks up on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard,” Shaver said. “Property owners are seeing the value of being just blocks from the Warehouse District and the CBD.”
Shaver’s most recent sale in the area was in July, when he helped auction house owner Adam Lambert purchase the former Daiquiri Palace Café at 1401 St. Charles Ave. The building had been shuttered since 2012, when the city closed the business after a series of violations and neighborhood complaints.
“It’s a good piece of property that had been stigmatized by previous use,” Shaver said. “It was hard to pinpoint the highest and best use.”
Lambert, who operates Crescent City Auction Gallery across the street, has now reopened the property as Crescent City Auction Exchange, an additional showroom and auction house. He said he had been eyeing the property since the bar closed and was waiting for the right time to grow his business.
“I saw this as an opportunity to do something with the space that would bring the property back up to the standards of the neighborhood,” Lambert said. “This stretch of St. Charles serves as a sort of transition between the Warehouse District and Garden District. I think there are a number of business owners looking for ways to attract more visitors to this part of the street.”
A few blocks from Lambert’s property, developer Jess Bourgeois is in the process of redeveloping the former Halpern’s Furnishing store at 1532 St. Charles Ave. into a liquor distillery and restaurant. He wants his project to contribute to what he describes as a “synergy” among restaurant owners in the area.
“You’ve got Zea’s, the Irish House, Houston’s and Delmonico all within walking distance of each other, and we hope to fit right in by offering something a little different,” Bourgeois said. “With a few more key business owners in the mix, I believe this stretch of St. Charles Avenue is set to become a more pedestrian-friendly neighborhood similar to what you see along Magazine Street.”...
Immediately behind Bourgeois’ project, a minor hotel expansion is starting to take shape. The Prytania Park Hotel, 1525 Prytania St., is planning a 200-room, two-phase expansion that would occupy almost an entire block along St. Charles Avenue. The Halpern family also owns the hotel.
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American Can building architects want to highlight retail space, remove some parking
http://midcitymessenger.com/2014/11/...-some-parking/
Quote:
Architects for the American Can apartment and retail building in Mid-City want the city to approve a project which would bring attention to the building’s commercial spaces, but eliminate some parking from the complex’s connected lot.
According to plans filed with the City of New Orleans in October, the capital improvement project calls for a raised pedestrian walkway as well as new signage and lighting added to the north side of the American Can building. The project would also replace the existing windows with floor-to-ceiling glass storefronts.
Limited space available in the parking lot of the American Can company, however, means that the architects would have to get rid of nine parking spaces from the retail parking lot in the north side of the property, according to Jack Sawyer, the architect overseeing the project.
According to Sawyer, the sacrificed parking would be worth the added attention a new walkway would bring to the building, and its nearly 19,000 square feet of retail space.
“A lot of people don’t realize that there’s retail there,” Sawyer said, adding the the building has a PJ’s coffee shop, Pearl Wine Company’s store and wine bar, a fitness center and a library that go underused. “This would increase the traffic, get more interest in the project and improve surroundings.”
The building has eight retail spaces, but so far only six of them are being used, Sawyer added.
Right now, the lot attached to the building has 76 parking spaces, according to Sawyer, who works for Eskew + Ripple + Dumez Architects. The plan would only eliminate spaces for the commercial stores, and not for the residents who live in the building’s condo apartments...
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Last edited by Eightball; Nov 26, 2014 at 6:10 PM.
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