Sunday Night Highlight – Groundbreaking for New Waterfront Neighborhood, The River District

New Orleans and Louisiana officials broke ground this week on the “River District,” a new $1B+ mixed-use neighborhood on the Mississippi, just upriver from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.  The project is expected to include a new office building to serve as Gulf of Mexico headquarters for Shell, 200,000 square feet of additional office space, a Top Golf entertainment complex, and about 900 mixed-income apartments and condominiums. River District leadership have also proposed building 115,000 square feet of shops, restaurants and entertainment and cultural venues over the next decade.

Local developer Louis Lauricella, who leads the River District consortium, and other backers of the public-private project, predicted it will create thousands of jobs and will result in more than $43 million of new taxes annually for the city and state when completed.  Lauricella and Cypress Equities of Dallas, which is part of the River District consortium, also bought with other private partners the old Market Street power plant adjacent to the River District acreage, which they plan to incorporate into the neighborhood.  In its totality, the River District is likely the largest privately funded non-industrial investment in Louisiana history.

In comments at Wednesday’s groundbreaking, Gov.-elect Jeff Landry lauded the fact that Shell Oil has committed to stay in New Orleans and expand its head count here. He also said the River District project includes a commitment to set aside about half the residential units for locals who qualify for affordable or workforce housing rents.

You can read more about the River District groundbreaking here.
You can see the River District development consortium team here.
You can see more renderings of the River District here.