NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans City Council overruled the City Planning Commission’s opposition to a new high-rise condo/ hotel project at 121 Royal St., and gave preliminary approval yesterday for developer Angelo Farrell to go ahead with his project, if he lowers the height of the proposed structure from 268 to 190 feet tall.
According to The New Orleans Advocate’s Jeff Adelson, The Royal Cosmopolitan would now be a 20-story tower, but still rise about 120 feet above the area’s height limit.
Adelson reports the council gave preliminary approval to the project on a 5-2 vote, with Councilwomen Stacy Head and Susan Guidry objecting that the building would contradict the city’s master plan. Adelson reports the project still needs to get final approval from the City Council, and approval by the Historic District Landmarks Commission.
The City Planning Commission reported that the “site is the former Cosmopolitan and Astor Hotels and is currently developed with two historic structures which have been vacant for several years. The primary structure, which fronts Royal Street, is a three-bay, five-story historic masonry structure. The second structure, located in the rear parallelogram portion of the lot, is a smaller three-story masonry structure, which the applicant intends to demolish. The original Cosmopolitan Hotel, built in 1892, contained 125 rooms and also had a façade on Bourbon Street, which was demolished to accommodate the expansion of Woolworth’s during the 1950s…. The redevelopment project would include the restoration of the historic five-story structure at the front of the site as well as the construction of a tower addition at the rear of the site, which would bring the overall height to approximately 26 stories and 268 feet. The development would contain between 15 and 20 condominium units, and the total number of units, including hotel rooms and condominiums, would not exceed 162 units. The applicant intends to restore 24 guest rooms within the historic five-story structure. The development would also include an atrium addition that would connect the tower addition to the original historic structure. The atrium addition would measure roughly the same height as the existing main structure and would serve as the connection to the tower addition. The ground and second floor of the historic structure would contain a lobby, cocktail lounge, restaurant, and reception and clerical offices. The two lowest floors of the new tower addition would house additional restaurant seating, but the majority of the space would consist of back of house spaces to serve both buildings. The remaining floors in the tower addition would include only guest rooms or condominiums. The 26th floor of the tower would hold a common exercise area and a pool deck. The site would provide no off-street parking or loading. The building would have a total floor area of approximately 105,445 square feet.”
Adelson reports Councilwoman Nadine Ramsey, whose district includes the site, said “This should be a dream we will all be proud of. Putting this building back into commerce will only improve this block, which is in a very bad state now.”
The Preservation Resource Center, in conjunction with Vieux Carré Property Owners, Residents (VCPORA) and Associates and French Quarter Citizens collected more than 1,400 signatures on a petition to oppose the construction of the high-rise.
