NEW ORLEANS – On Nov. 13, city, state and federal officials gathered to celebrate the completed redevelopment of the former Iberville housing development in downtown New Orleans at a ribbon-cutting ceremony that featured tours of the site. The community will now be known as the Bienville Basin neighborhood.
Project details were shared in a press release.
The new Bienville Basin community features 227 market-rate apartments, 151 workforce housing units and 304 public housing replacement units, including a 51-unit senior housing component. Bienville Basin is several blocks from the French Quarter with the Canal Street, Rampart Street and St. Charles Avenue streetcars running nearby, providing access and connectivity to all of New Orleans.
Residents at Bienville Basin will have access to three fitness centers; a computer learning center and outdoor technology patio powered by Dell; retails shops featuring a café and yoga studio; community rooms; an early childhood reading room to promote youth literacy; an outdoor dining area including picnic benches, BBQ grills, food truck parking; gardens tied to nutritional education programs; two playgrounds; and off-street, gated parking. The entire neighborhood was wired for fiber optics, offering the fastest Internet and cable services in the city.
Apartments are constructed to the latest in sustainable green building standards with amenities that include Energy Star rated equipment, energy-efficient central air and heat with programmable thermostats, stainless steel kitchen appliances, walk-in closets, and full-size washers and dryers. Wrap-around balconies and private porches are also available in select floor plans.
The project was funded by a public-private partnership by HRI Properties under a Choice Neighborhoods Implementation (CNI) $30.5 million grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the City of New Orleans. The goal was transform the 23- acre former Iberville site — built in 1942 and located adjacent to New Orleans’ famous French Quarter — into a vibrant, mixed-use, mixed-income community. New Orleans was one of five cities to receive a CNI implementation grant in its inaugural round in 2011.
“The completion of the transformation of the Iberville Housing Development into the Bienville Basin Neighborhood is a major win for the City of New Orleans and our residents,” said Mayor LaToya Cantrell. “We are facing an affordability crisis in a city that is majority renters. With this development, we are creating affordable, mixed-income housing and meeting the needs of our people. This project is a great example of what can happen when we come together at the local, state, and federal levels and leverage our public-private partnerships, but there is still work to be done.”
Over the weekend, voters approved a proposition on the ballot that will allow the city to sell $500 million in bonds, which could secure more funding to go towards more affordable housing initiatives along with street and drainage improvements and other infrastructure needs.
