This hasn't been decided yet by the consultants and real estate analysts who manufacture our place names for us now, but it may eventually be known as the "Trade District."
The Central Business District. The Warehouse District. The Lower Garden District.
And now, introducing, the Trade District.
A group of developers have presented an ambitious vision for a shiny new neighborhood on the riverfront with an MGM Grand hotel, more than 1,400 residences, blocks of retail and restaurants, and a towering needle-like sculpture for lofty views of the Mississippi River.
The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, which owns the vacant land, is in talks with the Howard Hughes Corp., owner of the Outlet Collection at the Riverwalk, and local real estate moguls Darryl Berger and Joe Jaeger on becoming master developer for the site.
Today these visionary Noligarchs are one step nearer to financing their dream.
The Louisiana House unanimously approved legislation Tuesday (April 26) granting the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center new taxing authority to expand upriver with a 1,200-room hotel and entertainment district.These developers will now have the authority to collect tax revenue they will use to build hotels and condos which they then will collect tax revenue from in order to.. well.. to continue building things they can profit from. They're creating their own little fiefdom upon what we may as well consider a riverfront "blank slate." Hell, they even get to rename it. Maybe they'll hire their own police at some point. The possibilities are limitless.
The bill state Rep. Walt Leger sponsored would open the way for the Convention Center to use tax increment financing, typically with a special sales tax that pays for infrastructure for a new commercial development.
The New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority Economic Growth and Development District was created by state lawmakers last year but without any taxing authority.
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