News Roundup

Mid-City not sold on retail project: Midura vows to help honor area’s wishes

Times-Picayune
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
By Greg Thomas

More than 200 Mid-City residents jammed Grace Episcopal Church on Monday and largely criticized a proposed retail development of more than 20 acres as out of scale and detrimental to their neighborhood.

Their pleas elicited the promise of New Orleans City Council member Shelley Midura that if the developer, Victory Real Estate Investments LLC of Columbus, Ga., doesn’t toe the line to the neighborhood’s desires, it can expect a fight.

After being shown what the Mid-City Neighborhood Association knew of Victory’s plans, including a 190,000-square-foot Target, small-box retailers like Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Barnes & Noble and Borders book stores, and more than 50,000 square feet of restaurants, 137,00 square feet of smaller retailers and 2,500 surface parking spaces, most residents at the meeting were in clear opposition to the current plan.

The proposed development would occur in phases. Victory’s site would include the purchase of Lindy Boggs Medical Center on Jefferson Davis Parkway between Bienville Avenue and Conti Street and numerous warehouses and lots running north to Toulouse Street and west to Carrollton Avenue, where Victory already owns a Home Depot and Sav-A-Center. The site also crosses Carrollton to North Solomon Street and includes the closed Bohn Ford car dealership, which has not reopened since Hurricane Katrina.

Midura, who represents much of the area, said the association had investigated Victory well and should be praised for knowing “far more than we know.”

She assured residents she would fight for what they want.

“You elected me; Victory didn’t,” Midura said. “I don’t make sweet deals and do not do anything without the cooperation and agreement of the community.”

She pointed out that Victory will face numerous regulatory hurdles. “They will come to the table and have to deal with me. Don’t worry that this is just going to slip through.”

Opponents noted the plan would destroy hopes of developing a proposal by the Friends of Lafitte Corridor, a group strongly supported by the Mid-City Neighborhood Association. Friends of Lafitte Corridor has $400,000 in grants and is pursuing City Council approval for a linear “rail-to-trail” green space with bicycle paths and walking trails in a swath that cuts through Victory’s vast site, said group chairman Bart Everson.

The Mid-City neighborhood group’s commercial development coordinator, Jennifer Weishaupt, asked those attending Monday’s meeting to raise their hands if they supported what the association wants:

• To live up to the comprehensive planning for Mid-City that occurred through the Unified New Orleans Plan process, meaning green spaces, pedestrian-friendly retail, easy access to transportation and support for local independent businesses.

• To preserve the historic character of the area surrounding Mid-City.

• To provide meaningful employment. Weishaupt said, “Retail jobs are not (well-paying) meaningful jobs.”

• To allow no big-box stores, opting instead for store fronts that face the street and retailers that are suitable for an urban rather than suburban location.

• To give no tax subsidies, from tax increment financing to payments in lieu of taxes, or infrastructure changes that would destroy the existing street grid.

“I told them (Victory), ‘If I can shop at it in Metairie or the West Bank, I don’t want it here,” said Weishaupt, drawing a roar of approval from the audience. [Note: this is a misquote by the Times-Picayune reporter - editor]

Most of the hands in the room shot up in support of Weishaupt’s development conditions.

But the outline she provided is not what Victory has been quietly assembling land for. Weishaupt said the association first heard of the potential development in November 2006 after investigating a rumor that a Wal-Mart Supercenter was in the cards by an unknown developer.

Plans evolve

Weishaupt organized a meeting with Victory, whose officials told her there were no plans for a big-box store but that Macy’s department store, which had stores in the damaged and closed New Orleans Shopping Centre on Poydras Street, was interested in the site.

But when a few board association members were shown plans, they were a far cry from the group’s vision of a rebuilt Mid-City.

By a second meeting in March, Macy’s had opted out and the association was told potential tenants were a 190,000-square-foot Target and hundreds of thousands of square feet of additional retail development. Weishaupt said real estate specialists said the development company, with 4.1 million square feet of retail space owned and managed, “is one of the most secretive development groups” in the nation.

Midura and Weishaupt went out of their way to point out that no sales have taken place, only options and contracts. Midura said the closing on the sale of Lindy Boggs Medical Center is expected by mid-April.