NEW ORLEANS – Tulane University has signed a long-term lease with the owners of the former Warwick Hotel, a 12-story building located at 1315 Gravier St., adjacent to Tulane University School of Medicine. The university plans to fill 154 apartments of the renovated building with graduate students, researchers, physicians, faculty and other affiliates of its expanding downtown campus.
The project will also add ground floor retail space, including a full‐service restaurant, coffee shop, grab-and-go food options, patio space and lounge seating. Renovation of the long-dormant building is slated to begin this month and completed no later than August 2021.
Redevelopment of the Warwick, which was built in 1952 but has been vacant since shortly after Hurricane Katrina, is part of Tulane’s overall strategy to expand its campus downtown, where it already occupies 17 buildings. The university also plans to be the anchor tenant in the redevelopment of the Charity Hospital building, filling more than 350,000 square feet of the one-million-square-foot structure with laboratories, classrooms, offices and more.
“The Warwick and Charity projects are prime opportunities to exponentially expand the university’s size and research mission, while also bolstering the creation of a robust research and commercialization ecosystem in the heart of the city,” Tulane President Mike Fitts said.
“Cities everywhere have been renewed and transformed by local universities, especially those located near their downtowns. This is Tulane and New Orleans’ shared future.”
