NEW ORLEANS – A Four Seasons Hotel? A new Dickie Brennan restaurant? A Kermit Ruffins penthouse jazz club? A revolving bar? An urban park?
Five developers who want to turn the World Trade Center building, located at the foot of Canal Street, into a hotel and residential complex are meeting with a city selection committee today to discuss their plans if they are chosen to redevelop the site.
According to The New Orleans Advocate’s Jaquetta White, the committee consists of Deputy Mayor and Chief Administrative Officer Andy Kopplin, Cindy Connick, executive director of the Canal Street Development Corp., Bill Gilchrist, the city’s director of place-based planning, City Planning Commission Executive Director Bob Rivers and Ashleigh Gardere, executive director of the city’s Network for Economic Opportunity.
White reports formal presentations will take place on Friday, Feb. 27, 2015, and a developer will be chosen on Monday, March 23, 2015.
According to her report 2 Canal St. is 33 stories tall, will be leased by the City of New Orleans to one of the developers for 99 years, and the chosen developer would have to involve disadvantaged business enterprises in their redevelopment plans.
White reports the five proposals include:
Carpenter & Co. Inc. and Woodward Interests LLC –
• Four Seasons Hotel – 350 rooms
• 76 residential units
• 2 new low-rise structures featuring a restaurant and a parking garage
• Public observation deck under a rooftop cupola
• Urban park at Canal Street and Convention Center Boulevard
• $360M proposal
Two Canal Street Investors Inc. –
• Hotel Alessandra – 318 rooms
• 240 residential units
• Restaurants, ballroom, wine bar
• Jazz lounge headlined by Kermit Ruffins on the top floor
• Spanish Plaza water fountain improvements
• $238M proposal
Oxford Capital Group LLC –
• Godfrey Hotel – 516 rooms
• 166 residential units
• Restaurant, jazz club, rotating lounge
• 1 new low-rise structure featuring a parking garage, ballroom, rooftop entertainment venue with a pool and private event spaces
• Pedestrian plaza
• $257M proposal
HRI Properties –
• Name change to Crescent Hotel & Crescent Tower at the World Trade Center
• 309 room hotel managed by the Luxury Collection of Starwood Hotels & Resorts
• 261 residential units
• Dickie Brennan restaurant, top floor revolving bar
• An interactive visitor attraction called the New Orleans Experience operated by Mercedes-Benz Superdome manager SMG
• $266M proposal
2 Canal Redevelopment LLC in partnership with Hilton Worldwide –
• Conrad New Orleans Hotel and Residences by Hilton Worldwide
• 307 hotel rooms
• 120 residential units
• A restaurant, meeting space, spa and public rooftop observatory on the top floor
• 1 new low-rise structure featuring a parking garage, 2 pools and a pool club
• A connection to the Morial Convention Center and the Hilton New Orleans Riverside hotel, and a connection from the Outlet Collection at Riverwalk to Convention Center Boulevard
• $1M donation to Xavier University, $250,000 to the Mayor’s NOLA for Life Initiative
• $292M proposal
