New Orleans riverfront entertainment district developer was just picked.

This will definitely be a transformative moment for New Orleans going forward if this can actually break ground.



The River District group, led by Louis Lauricella, has been recommended by the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center's selection panel to develop a new, 39-acre neighborhood along the Mississippi upriver from the Crescent City Connection.

The selection marks a big advance for a project that started a decade ago to build a new entertainment-focused district from scratch on mostly greenfield land owned by the Convention Center. The center's leaders have long argued that such a development is needed to keep the New Orleans convention trade competitive in attracting big national events, as well as to breathe new life into the city itself.

"We felt that a focus primarily on the entertainment segment [in the first phase] could compromise the project's long-term financial soundness," Lauricella told the board. "That is especially important given the lessons we have learned during the pandemic."

A key element of the River District neighborhood is housing aimed at those making average or below-average incomes. The development team said the first component of the development would be to construct 600 apartments, half of which would be split equally between those defined as "workforce" and "affordable," based on their incomes relative to the city's average.

The plan envisions 1,100 housing units in total, with 450 designated for lower-income residents.

River District promised to invest more than $1 billion to create 2.4 million square feet of housing, retail, entertainment and office space, which would in turn create 4,500 permanent jobs. The group also emphasized that its plan would generate the most tax revenue for New Orleans and Louisiana governments, as well as potential upside for the Convention Center.