News Roundup

Council Oks Hotel Tower: Developers Plan 26-story Building For 100 Block Of Royal Street

Times-Picayune
Friday, February 16, 2007
By Bruce Eggler

Despite the objections of French Quarter resident groups and a former council member, the New Orleans City Council voted Thursday to let two local developers build a 26-story hotel tower in the 100 block of Royal Street.

In return for being allowed to build the tower in the middle of the block bounded by Royal, Canal, Bourbon and Iberville streets, developers Angelo Farrell and Lee Laporte have pledged to restore a blighted, long-vacant hotel building at 121-125 Royal that is more than 100 years old.

The old five-story building, with a distinctive metal facade, would serve as the new hotel’s entrance. The new tower would provide the rooms needed to make the project economically viable, proponents said.

The hotel, to be known as the Royal Cosmopolitan, would be a “condotel,” meaning its 152 rooms and suites would be sold as condominiums, with buyers able to stay in their rooms when they like and to share in the hotel’s revenue from other guests the rest of the time.

In a last-minute concession, Farrell and Laporte said they will reduce the height of the tower from the 268 feet they had been seeking to 259 feet. They said they won’t reduce the number of floors but will shave a bit off the height of many of the floors.

Even with the reduction, the tower would be more than three times the 85-foot height limit allowed in the block by the city’s zoning law.

Quarter opposition

The council’s 5-0 vote endorsed the recommendation of Councilman James Carter, whose district includes the site. Councilwomen Cynthia Hedge-Morrell and Cynthia Willard-Lewis were absent.

Although the block between Canal and Iberville streets is considered part of the Central Business District, not the French Quarter, opposition to the project came mainly from two organizations of Quarter residents: Vieux Carre Property Owners, Residents and Associates, and French Quarter Citizens.

The opponents ran radio ads this week urging the council to turn down the height waiver sought by the developers, which they said would continue a trend of erecting inappropriately tall buildings on the edge of the city’s most historic neighborhood.

The proposal was supported by many Canal Street business owners and others who said the hotel would be vital to cleaning up the 100 block of Royal Street. Instead of an inviting gateway to the Quarter, they said, the 100 block, which already is home to one major hotel, is an ugly barrier frequented by hustlers, drug dealers, prostitutes and thieves.

Proponents also said the tower would be set so far back from any street that it would not be visible to pedestrians on immediately surrounding streets. Even from farther away, they said, the tower would be so small, occupying a 40-by-85-foot footprint, that it would not be visually oppressive.

Speakers on both sides insisted the issue should not be viewed in traditional terms of historic preservation versus economic development. Proponents said the project involves no demolitions and would result in restoring a historic building. Opponents said preserving the Quarter’s unique character is essential to reviving the city’s vital tourism industry.

City ‘needs catalysts’

Several council members said they found the issue a tough one to decide but concluded that, as Councilwoman Stacy Head said, the pluses outweighed the minuses.

Several said a key factor in their decision was the belief that after Katrina, “this city more than anything else right now needs catalysts,” as Councilman Arnie Fielkow put it. “We need some cranes in the sky,” he said, even while describing the council as “very pro-preservation.”

Carter and some of his colleagues said their votes reflected the unique circumstances of this proposal and should not be considered as setting a precedent. Head said she does not expect to vote for any other height waivers.

The council’s action revised a 2005 vote to allow the same developers to build a 168-foot, 17-floor tower behind the Astor Hotel building at 121-125 Royal, a once-grand inn that has been vacant for several decades.

In their new request, Farrell and Laporte said they needed to add nine floors to offset construction costs that have risen by 35 percent to 40 percent since Katrina. If their plans were rejected, they said, they would put the old hotel back on the market, and it probably would sit empty for many more years.

At the request of then-Councilwoman Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson, who represented the district that Carter does now, the French Quarter resident groups agreed not to fight the 168-foot proposal in 2005.

However, Clarkson told the council Thursday that although the 168-foot tower was “a very good compromise,” approving an additional 90 feet would be “excessive.”

Lawyer and neighborhood activist Keith Hardie said approving a tower three times as high as the zoning code allows would amount to “nullification” of a law whose stated purpose was to prevent the Quarter from being surrounded by tall buildings.

But Canal Street merchant David Rubenstein, who said Canal Street has become “a most blighted symbol” of the city, urged repealing the 85-foot height limit altogether.

Fellow merchant Coleman Adler said the only way to get small historic buildings such as the old Astor Hotel restored and put to use is to allow additional construction.

Councilwoman Shelley Midura’s decision to support the project was a bit of a surprise. Earlier in the meeting, she had voted to send the issue back to the Historic District Landmarks Commission for reconsideration on the grounds that opponents had not been notified of the special December meeting at which the commission’s Central Business District panel unexpectedly voted 6-0 to approve the project. Other members agreed with Carter that the commission had met the legal notification requirements for its meeting, and Midura was outvoted 4-1.

The City Planning Commission voted 6-2 to support the higher building.

Farrell and Laporte have promised to start work on the project within a year of receiving their final city permit.