Kern World news

Lots of Noligarchs in the news today.  There's some from the con-profit sector which we'll get to later. This one is from the speculative land use sector, though.  The dream of Kernworld (a dependency of Jaegerton) grew one step closer to reality today at the CPC meeting.

The new owners of the former Times-Picayune building got City Planning Commission approval Tuesday (Feb. 7) for a zoning change that opens the nine-acre industrial site to entertainment, residential and other mixed-use developments.

The building at 3800 Howard Ave. in a mostly industrial area along Interstate 10 has been vacant for about one year. An ownership group that includes local developers Joe Jaeger, Arnold Kirschman, Barry Kern and Michael White wants to revive the property beyond its newspaper industry legacy, although specific plans for the property haven't been submitted to the city.

Peter Aamodt, representing Jaeger's company MCC Real Estate, said the property is one of the last swaths of underutilized land in the heart of the city, in an area with the potential to become a lively, mixed-use corridor. "A lot of people do see it as the next potential Warehouse District," Aamodt said after the vote.

If "a lot of people" turn out to be right about that, this would mean Jaeger has a substantial interest in both the old Warehouse District and the new one... as you can see on the map above.  Anyway it's nice to be able to make these kinds of investments in the full knowledge that friends and admirers on the CPC and City Council will be helpful when you need them.  Privilege has its privileges.

Also... 

Aamodt said after purchasing the property, the owners got dozens of calls for interest in the property, none of which involved industrial uses.

A residential use isn't currently being considered, he said. The new zoning would allow for about 486 residential units, he said, which would be about half the number of people the Times-Picayune once employed at the site.

Zing!

Also too. Odds have to be good that it will, in fact, be residential.