Nice things for rich people

The Louisiana Children's Museum is leaving the Warehouse District. This is excellent news for land speculators since the market in that area is "sizzling." 

The 45,000-square-foot property was bought at the end of 2017 by developer Joe Jaeger’s MCC Real Estate Group for $3.6 million, which at $80 per square foot now seems like an amazing deal for the sizzling Warehouse District market.

The newer developments in the area — mostly condominium complexes with some restaurants and shops on the ground floor — are being sold for anything from $350 to $1,000 per square foot for the condo units, while the retail leasing is among the priciest in the city at around $35 to $40 per square foot a year, according to real estate experts.

The condominium complex at 425 Notre Dame St. recently sold out its units at an average of about $600 per square foot, said Michael Siegel, president of Corporate Realty, a New Orleans-based commercial real estate agency.

"There are some projects getting $700 to $800 a square foot, like The Standard, or the River Place, over $1,000," said Siegel. Some of the older projects are holding up well, too, he said, ranging between $350 and $500 per square foot.

Nobody actually lives in these condos of course. It's a market driven by pied-a-terres and short term rentals, but who cares. Assets are appreciating.  Which is another reason it's funny that this article describes the property as a "gamble" for Joe Jaeger, of all people. He's well positioned to bide his time.

MCC is one of the largest developers in the city and has held onto sites for years before deciding what to do with them. It only recently decided to move ahead with a new elder care facility in the derelict Lindy Boggs Medical Center site in Mid-City which it has co-owned since 2010.

It has also sat on the property housing the old Market Street Power Plant it has owned for the past four years. Aamodt said there was some investor interest in that site at a Council of Shopping Centers conference in Las Vegas last month but no firm plans yet.

So don't worry about him. Worry more about the fact that, even in the middle of a severe housing crunch, our system allows so much property to sit vacant for as long as it takes to turn a nice profit... as more nice things for rich people.

One possible conversion for the Children's Museum site would be a condominium or apartment-and-retail renovation, judging from the projects that dominate the surrounding area.