Workforce development

The Data Center says that great big robust tourism industry, on which our entire existence depends and to which we must offer daily devotionals of eternal gratitude, may not be quite so as hugely robust as it would like us to think.

While hospitality leaders have long touted the industry’s ranks as amounting to more than 80,000 jobs, the Data Center’s report Tuesday pegs the number of New Orleans residents who make their living from tourism at closer to 30,000.

Part of the issue with such projections, the Data Center notes, is that defining what qualifies within a set industry cluster is “a rather subjective activity, leaving definitions vulnerable to pressures to make industry clusters look as large and inclusive as possible.”

The Data Center’s research relies on parameters put together in 2014 by Harvard University researchers.

Also the report pegs the average annual salary for a full time restaurant employee at $29,464. (Yes, including tips.)  

All of which is why it is so nice that we have dumped a ton of public money into subsidizing pet projects of industry magnates like this.

The school has emerged in a cluster of properties — originally built a century ago for a furniture store — that was previously destined to be an arts center called Louisiana ArtWorks. Though it soaked up millions in funding, Louisiana ArtWorks proved to be a massive boondoggle that never fully opened.

A few years after that project ground to a halt, the property was acquired by NOCHI from the city through a bid process in 2013. The organization later sold it to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center with an agreement in place to have NOCHI operate it as a culinary school. Martin said the Convention Center’s investment was a key piece of moving NOCHI forward.

As a training institute aimed at a clear industry need, NOCHI appears to have broad support. One backer, for instance, is the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers, a trade group that is contributing an estimated $5 million in cooking equipment to the school.

 NOCHI opens January 7. Tuition is $14,000. 

Let's go eat the factory

Must be nice to be a Noligarch.  Life is pretty sweet when your cultural economy con-profit venture can call on palls at the Convention Center for a public money booster shot. 

The board of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center has completed buying the former ArtWorks building near Lee Circle from the New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute for $8 million and has signed an agreement to have the nonprofit institute operate a $32 million culinary and hospitality training center there.

In addition to the purchase price, the Convention Center said Monday that the plan calls for another $4 million to go toward improvements to the building, which will reopen in 2018 with two culinary labs, two baking and pastry labs, a restaurant lab, a wine and spirits lab, a large event center including a banquet kitchen, a café open to the public and traditional classroom and office spaces.

NOCHI is a non-profit formed by Commander's Palace owner Ti Martin and backed by several high profile restaurant tycoons including John Besh. Its ostensible purpose is "workforce development" for the hospitality industry. What this means, in practice, is the restaurateurs will run certification programs for employment in their own businesses.  Remember those $13 an hour line cooks, Sidney Torres talked about yesterday? NOCHI wants to charge them an entry fee for the privilege of performing this work in the amount of whatever tuition their state subsidized building ends up costing.

As for the restaurateurs themselves, their investment is already covered. Besh and Martin bought the ArtWorks building a few years back for $6.2 million. So, already, they are coming out ahead on the real estate investment.  They're also planning to pull down state and federal tax credits to finance renovations. In 2015, the plan involved a partnership with Delgado Community College's Culinary Center, although they are not currently listed as a partner on NOCHI's website.

The governor and the mayor both spoke highly of this latest "public-private partnership" scheme because of course they would. The model is well in keeping with the "volunteer entrepreneurism" we described back when everyone was tsk-tsking at Irvin Mayfield for not quite pulling it off without drawing suspicion.  The model itself is golden, though. It's how our aristocrats maintain themselves.  If you're the right sort of person in the right sort of club, such opportunities are always available for you in New Orleans.