News Roundup

Op Ed/From the Editor

Terry O’Connor, Editor
New Orleans CityBusiness

The Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans says a 10-year building boom is already under way. It’s been spurred by mobile baby boomers with big bucks.

Yet, in contrast with such confident forecasts, the local HBA played it close to the vest in its recently concluded home show, the Parade of Homes. Just 29 homes were shown, all in the $200,000 to $900,000 range. That compares feebly with the 60-plus homes shown by the Acadiana Home Builders Association in an area with roughly 30% of the New Orleans population.

Two factors work strongly in favor of New Orleans builders, though.

No. 1: Look for Mayor Ray Nagin to privatize blighted housing repair with New Orleans builders partnering with local communities and churches.

A recent 46-page report on renovations administered by the city showed some projects came in at the bloated cost of $200 per square foot. Dependent on amenities, such costs should reside more in the neighborhood of $65 to $70 per square foot, says Scott Coulombe, executive officer for the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans.

“We know it can be done for a whole lot less than $200 per square foot, short of using gold fixtures and marble tubs,” Coulombe says. “That’s expensive. There’s an enormous lack of accountability and poor record-keeping.”

No. 2: As one of the oldest cities in the nation, New Orleans has an enormous remodeling market, too.

“Maintenance upkeep and remodeling are huge financial forces,” Coulombe says.

The danger here is that senior citizens and people on fixed incomes are targeted by ripoff artists. Coulombe applauded the Jefferson Parish licensing requirement for contract jobs of more than $2,500, which holds contractors to a greater level of accountability. Orleans Parish has no such consumer protection and 98% of the construction complaints made to its Better Business Bureau involve fraud and incompetence committed by unlicensed contractors.

“There’s a stream of revenue here not being tapped in a very professional way,” Coulombe says. “We need a greater licensing procedure.”

So, too, do Orleans Parish consumers. Especially if the expected building boom materializes.

Recipe mambo: Alvin Copeland Sr. instinctually hit upon the Popeyes recipe that’s brought him eye-popping riches. The “golden goose” of his financial empire, Diversified Foods and Seasonings, supplies all Popeyes restaurants throughout the world. His exclusive supply deal with Atlanta-based AFC Enterprises Inc. virtually guarantees his financial prosperity.

But he and Popeyes execs have had to tinker with product formulas to enhance global expansion.

“The only time (the recipe) changes is when we move into the international scene,” says Jon Luther, Popeyes president. “Their palates are very different. In Korea, for example, Koreans consume five times the Tabasco of any other country. We elevate that spice profile.”

Operating globally can be challenging. Indonesia restricts certain spices. Other Middle Eastern countries have religious objections to the original Popeyes concoctions.

Posing an even greater challenge, some countries require that all the ingredients of imported products be listed on customs documents. As with any proprietary information, such as the famously hidden equation for Coca-Cola, Popeyes isn’t willing to relinquish key company recipes.

“To maintain our trade secrets, we change the spices slightly for those countries,” Luther says.

Internationally, China is receiving Popeyes’ biggest expansion push this year.

In the United States, where it has received 250 new commitments a year during Luther’s five-year tenure, Popeyes just concluded a big push in Tennessee, particularly Nashville.

Luther says Popeyes will focus on building out in Las Vegas this year and move on to Orange County, Calif., next year.

Popeyes fell out of favor in some Crescent City business circles when AFC moved its headquarters to Atlanta after buying the property following Copeland’s 1992 bankruptcy. The company wants to rebuild those battered bridges.

“We hope to re-establish the great legacy Al established 30 years ago,” Luther says. “Our New Orleans roots are important.”

Quotable: “I wouldn’t trust [state] government if I knew what was going on here. The truth is, nobody understands what happens over here anyway.”

— Gov. Mike Foster as quoted May 21 in the Baton Rouge Advocate.

Last word: The questionable, to put it mildly, move by Gov. Mike Foster to appoint controversial former legislator Sammy Nunez to the New Orleans Dock Board, backfired Tuesday when Nunez blew off his first meeting. Foster has defended his appointment of Nunez, who will never live down the image of his handing out cash to fellow politicos on the floor of the Legislature, by saying Nunez was looking for something to do and was interested in serving the public again. Attending the first port board meeting would have been a good place to start.

Editor Terry O’Connor can be reached at toconnor@nopg.com or 293-7231.
06/17/2002 - Vol. 98 - Issue 103 - Page 25