NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The city is whittling down proposals brought by developers hoping to revamp the vacant 33-story World Trade Center into a hotel and apartments.
The building stands at the foot of Canal Street and overlooks the Mississippi River. It is considered one of the city's most valuable pieces of real estate.
On Monday a panel appointed by Mayor Mitch Landrieu to evaluate proposals cut the number of possible developers to five. The private re-development plans all offer to turn the 1960s-era tower into a mixed use building — part hotel, part apartment complex.
NOLA.com/ The Times-Picayune’s Katherine Sayre reports the five developers now will be given more time to come up with more detailed proposals. Six other proposals were eliminated.
Here are the five proposals in brief:
— A 350-room Four Seasons hotel and 40 apartments on four top floors.
— A Hilton Worldwide-brand Conrad Hotel & Residences with 300 hotel rooms on 11 floors.
— A 516-room Godfrey Hotel on the first 18 floors at the World Trade Center and about 166 apartments on the remaining floors, in addition an adjacent retail-entertainment building.
— A 252-room Andaz Hotel by Hyatt and 295 luxury apartments, in addition to meeting and commercial space.
— A 318-room Hotel Alessandra and 240 apartments.
The city hopes to lease the building out for 99 years. Since the late 1990s, negotiations with developers over long-term leases for the building have failed three times.
Most recently, after a months-long selection process, the city broke off talks in April with Gatehouse Capital Corp., which had hopes of turning the building into apartments and a hotel.
