NEW ORLEANS – Four Seasons investors are in New Orleans today, Tuesday, September 15, 2015, to attend a ceremony to kick off the $364 million rehab of the 33-story World Trade Center into a new Four Seasons hotel complex.
According to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune’s Katherine Sayre, J. Allen Smith, Four Seasons president and CEO; Richard Friedman, president and CEO of lead developer Carpenter & Co.; and a representative for Cascade Investment LLC, an investment arm of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, are among those expected to gather to sign partnership agreements.
Sayre reports Mayor Mitch Landrieu is also scheduled to attend.
City officials chose the Four Seasons group out of 11 developers in March 2015 to lease and renovate the city-owned property into a 350-room luxury hotel and 76 hotel-serviced condos, Sayre reports.
The complex will also include two new buildings with parking, meeting rooms and a restaurant.
Sayre reports the WTC tower is held by the New Orleans Building Corp., a property management arm of the city.
Sayre reports the project's New Orleans investors include:
• Henry Coaxum, founder of Coaxum Enterprises, which includes local McDonald's franchises
• Paul Flower, president and CEO of Woodward Design+Build
• Lee Jackson, president and CEO of Jackson Offshore Operators
• Sherry Marcus Leventhal, Tulane University board of administrators vice chair
• Bob Merrick, CEO and chairman of Latter & Blum
• Earl Robinson, a partner in the private equity firm RLMcCall Capital
