It's just Dracula's castle now

It's been a while since we did a round-up of our city's most "iconic" doomed redevelopment projects.  In what's now a twenty year race to see who gets "back into commerce" only one of these has made it all the way there... for better or worse. The Trade Mart building is now the Four Seasons hotel.  Boysie Bollinger will sell you his penthouse there for $19.5 million if you are interested.  As for our other favs, well let's take a look.

Plaza Tower: Please enjoy this recent NOLA.com slideshow on the history of the tower. Last month, the city put out an RFP on possible demolition.  That didn't make Joe Jaeger, the building's current owner, very happy. Both Jager and the city have made vague references to possible sale in the works.  But nobody knows who the buyer might be.

Six Flags: As of this past October, Troy Henry has a lease on the property and, apparently, the green light to begin demolition.  He does not, however, have any partners lined up to operate any of the attractions and amenities his pitches for the property have promised.  Nor does he have any financing outside of the potential public subsidy should anything materialize.

Municipal Auditorium: Thankfully this will not become the next City Hall. What it will become remains anyone's guess. There is finally a plan in place to spend the $37 million in FEMA funding to "stabilize" the structure. The years of arguing over what to do with the building almost allowed that to expire. But, even now, there's still no agreed upon vision for the building. An RFP could come soon though.

Charity Hospital: There is news today! Not very encouraging news, of course.  Remember that years-long and very pained public process of getting various entities private and public (LSU, Tulane, the state and city governments, a developer partnership called "1532 Partners") to agree on a development plan? Well that's all scrapped. Instead they're doing this new thing. 

The Domain Companies, a New York firm known in New Orleans for developing the South Market district on Loyola Avenue, has finalized a deal to take over redevelopment of the old Charity Hospital, a project that is more than three years behind schedule and has at least doubled in cost.

What will they build now?  Unclear. But as a placeholder, please enjoy a bunch of gobbledygook.

Domain CEO Matt Schwartz said he isn’t ready to unveil updated plans for the building, but he said the project’s most important component — Tulane’s presence as anchor tenant — will remain the same. Other elements, such as the specific number and configuration of apartments, labs and offices, will be adjusted to make the project more financially feasible.

“Some of it will have to be retooled to make sure the different components are speaking to each other,” Schwartz said in an interview Tuesday. “We are looking at rightsizing the different components for viability, finance ability and making sure we’re targeting the right market and right demographics for what will work.”

The project was originally estimated to cost $250 million, and was later revised to $300 million. After the pandemic, interest rate increases and inflation drove up construction costs. Sources familiar with the project said it could cost as much as $600 million now.

Thumbing back through our notes we are reminded that in 2019 the LSU board gave its final approval to the plan while meeting in Shreveport in order to get as far away as possible from any objections from the New Orleans public. Even at that moment, the emphasis was already moving away from "innovation hubs" and affordable housing and toward condos and STRs. 

Plans for the project also include renting about 150 residential units to Sonder, a short-term rental company that already has significant operations in New Orleans. That would be about 50% more units than would be allowed for the property under short-term rental rules the City Council passed earlier this year, which bar renting more than 25% of the units in commercial buildings to tourists.

And, now, what with all the "right sizing" and "market targeting" Domain is going to do, who knows what they'll end up with. 

But what about the monorail?

This week, Troy Henry and the city's economic development team he has been negotiating with over the Six Flags site showed up at a convention of water park operators to do a little carnival barking. 

The yearslong effort to redevelop the former Six Flags amusement park in New Orleans East took a major step forward Wednesday as the 227-acre property was formally turned over to Bayou Phoenix, the local group selected to tackle the ambitious project.

At a ceremony held during the annual meeting of the World Waterpark Association at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Troy Henry, who leads the Bayou Phoenix consortium, signed the lease to cheers from residents and applause from public officials.

Henry's one dollar per year lease now gives him permission to demolish what remains of the flooded and shuttered park. Beyond that, though, nothing is guaranteed. In fact, Henry even says here that the master plan he's been waving around in order to drum up public support and secure his bid for the project will probably be altered once the demolitions are done. 

Now that the document is finalized and Bayou Phoenix has control of the property, Henry said his group can begin the difficult task of figuring out how to turn their vision into reality.

“We just got the keys, so now we have to assess the property because we need to understand if the master plan we have designed can physically be located in the way we have laid it out,” Henry said.

While today’s ceremony was a significant milestone, many questions about the project remain.

Over the next 12 months, the developers plan to assess the site and clear it out, demolishing the rusting old amusement rides and removing junk from the property. The Bayou Phoenix master plan will also likely change during that process as the partners get a better understanding of the land and determine what is feasible.

In other words, yes, we have been plying you with bullshit for years now. But trust us.  

A few months ago, WWLTV helped spread some of that bullshit by running a little feature about Tyler Perry's music partner. Apparently Henry had trotted him out to say vague things about how he could do Hollywood things of some sort on whatever the Six Flags site becomes. 

His next venture takes him from Hollywood back to his hometown of New Orleans as he tries to help revive the Six Flags site.

“I walked in there and immediately went into reimagining what the space could potentially be, including equity and inclusion. Being able to have representation for the unrepresented."

The former church organist from Hahnville has big plans for Six Flags and his own career. They include technology centers on the abandoned site and partnering with industries that can help teach the courses and plant the seeds in the next generation.

But at this week's signing ceremony, we learn that Henry doesn't actually have any partners lined up to operate any of the "attractions" he has promised. And, of course, it follows that there's no financing lined up for anything. 

The developers have had initial discussions with several operators, including nationally known brands that are interested in taking on various pieces of the project, Henry said. Because Bayou Phoenix did not have a signed lease agreement until Tuesday, however, it has not engaged in serious talks or, even, secured letters of intent with any specific partners.

For those same reasons, the group has not secured any financing commitments yet. The price tag for the project has previously been mentioned as ranging from $500 million to nearly $1 billion, though Henry said Tuesday that it will likely be closer to $500 million. 

It's well known that Henry and his friends in media and entertainment pull this sort of stuff all the time. It's also fairly well understood that this circle of friends extends into politics. 

 

Equity Media bought WBOK making Troy Henry, who also runs Bayou Phoenix, Councilmember Thomas’ boss. Seems like Troy is gonna have to give out some raises if Oliver secures the bag 💰 pic.twitter.com/knYh56H8fT

— Down For Whatever (@dadioonthepatio) May 12, 2023

Which, in turn, is one reason Troy's project, which may not have any solid partnership commitments or private financing, does have access to $100 million in public subsidies. 

Of that, an estimated 20%, or $100 million, is expected to come from city, state and federal funds, including the possible creation of a special taxing district and “other creative, innovative government programs,” Henry said.

Anyway as of right now, Troy has a one year lease. Let's check back next Halloween to see how many of these deadlines need to be extended.

Its first deadline is 12 months from the date of the lease signing, October 25, by which time it must have a sublease in place with an operator for at least one component of the project. That portion of the project must be completed in early 2027, according to the lease.

The developers will be considered in default if they do not hit the milestones, though the lease contains clauses that allow for extensions.

"Along with"

 Seems like "along with" might be a bit of a stretch in this passage. 

A development agreement for the former Six Flags amusement park has been finalized, nearly a year after Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration chose Bayou Phoenix to take on the project.

The agreement will eventually allow the group led by businessman Troy Henry to access the site and begin pre-construction work. Details of the agreement were not immediately available, but Bayou Phoenix has proposed to build a warehouse on the 227-acre site, along with a water park, hotel, ball fields and other amenities.

If I had to guess at what's going to happen, at the very least I would assume the warehouse project is, "prior to" any remaining development which could be pending for a very long time.  

This doesn't yet say what, exactly has been agreed to.  Back in November, it was clear that Henry was seeking private control over a public asset beyond which was either legally or morally appropriate.  We'll see what he got soon, I guess. 

Update: Case in point, re: public investment going toward private profit.  Apparently the city is chucking in another 1 million dollars toward Henry's warehouse. 

Troy Henry's goal is full privatization

From the outside, this looks a lot like Henry's group is negotiating in bad faith with the explicit goal of getting complete control of the Jazzland property and avoid any accountability for their use of infrastructure created through a massive amount of public investment. 

Businessman Troy Henry, the public face of Bayou Phoenix, has claimed that NORA is demanding unreasonable approval power over tenants, contractors and other aspects of his future plans for the site. Henry, who reiterated those claims in a public meeting on Thursday, said Bayou Phoenix will never agree to those demands.

“No deal is better than a bad deal. And having one hand on the steering wheel trying to drive with somebody else having another is a bad deal, and a disaster waiting to happen,” Henry said at a meeting of the Industrial Development Board.

In one regard, he's right. No deal really is better than a bad deal. It's just that the deal he is angling for is one in which he fully privatizes a public project and collects the profit with no accountability or oversight. That deal would be the bad deal. 

The current plan the Henry is bucking against would have the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) take over nominal ownership of the property from the Industrial Development Board (IDB) and act as a landlord leasing it to Henry's development company.

NORA’s executive director, Brenda Breaux, said at a city budget hearing on Thursday that Bayou Phoenix is asking for a lease that's below the fair-market rate. She said NORA can live with that, but “there has to be an exchange for what the public benefits are, to protect the public’s interest.”

“It's not that (NORA) is intending to approve every tenant or whomever goes on that site, but there are some safeguards that the general public, the 390,000 citizens of New Orleans, would like to see,” Breaux said.

But now it looks like Henry prefers to own the land outright. His strategy for getting it in that case would be to clam up these negotiations and deal directly with the IDB who may be more willing (maybe a little desperate, even, at this point) to sell. 

With prospects for a master lease looking dim, exasperated IDB members on Thursday refused to consider extending an agreement with City Hall that gives the administration the right to lead redevelopment efforts. The agreement expires at the end of November, after which the IDB would seemingly be able to do as it pleases.

That's not an ideal outcome.  We talked about this in greater detail last month on the CBC podcast. You can find that in this post. The land now formerly known as Six Flags/Jazzland was purchased and developed through a large public investment of federal and state dollars. The public, through its elected representatives, should maintain control of its destiny and it should be used for the maximum benefit of the public. IDB can't just dump it to Troy Henry so he can turn a profit doing whatever the heck he wants.  The city's economic development director Jeff Schwartz agrees. 

“If that site is not redeveloped through a solicitation process, whether the existing one or a future one, there’s no guarantee that someone who buys the property on the private market has to do anything with it,” Schwartz said. “They could sit on it for another 10 years. They could turn it into a gas station.”

If that is allowed to happen simply because IDB is tired of dealing with this, it would be a monumental betrayal of the public trust.

The people's park vs Troy Henry

The Six Flags saga is once again in the news. You might say, it's been something of a roller coaster ride.

One year after Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced Bayou Phoenix had won the right redevelop the former Six Flags amusement park site in New Orleans East, lease negotiations to give the group control over the site appear to be on shaky ground.

Actually the ground at the Six Flags site is the least shaky element in all of this.  At least that's one thing we learned watching the 2021 documentary Closed For Storm for the latest episode of CBC last week.  At least one person interviewed in the film says the park's foundation is structurally sound on strong piers and can be built on again.  (Of course this person may have been Tonya Pope so... grain of salt. But it seems correct.)

On the podcast, we specifically talked about why the park is of public interest and why the many attempts at redevelopment have necessarily been part of a public process. Not only does it affect the people who live in the surrounding area, not only does it matter to the well being of the city in general, but also because the initial investment... the one that built the strong foundation on those study piers... was massive amounts of public money.

We also talked about Troy Henry's background as a corporate leech and privatizing ideologue. And well, danged if that isn't the issue now.

Henry said he is still moving forward with pre-development work on the assumption that the project will move forward, but he would not say whether he believes NORA would eventually soften its stance.

"We are hoping they come back with something a little more amenable," Henry said. "But look, there are some fundamental things that we will not waver on. And if we can't control our own project, it's not our project."

But it isn't his project. This is a property and a facility that spiritually belongs to the people and in financial terms was literally built by the people. The people and their elected representatives should retain control over its destiny and benefit from its use.  Troy doesn't get to bully us into granting him the right to private profits from public investment without oversight. But that's what he's about now. It's what he's always been about.

Well it has been a roller coaster ride

The city's agreement with Troy Henry's development company to turn Six Flags into.. well... first into some warehouses and then maybe some other things later is, get this, behind schedule.

City officials said Tuesday that talks with the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, which redevelops derelict properties, to take ownership have taken longer than expected. The Industrial Development Board has owned and maintained the site since 2009, but wants to dispose of it to save on maintenance costs exceeding $200,000 annually.

Seems like a straightforward sort of transfer between these governmental (or quasi-governmental) bodies.  But nothing is ever straightforward around here. What is going on?  Well, you know, real estate stuff, apparently. 

In a brief interview, Schwartz said agreements between the administration and the two development agencies are in final drafts, and said discussions are over “typical real estate terms.” He declined to go into detail.

No idea why they can't tell us more.  But just know that it's all very normal.

NORA Executive Director Brenda Breaux agreed the negotiations are over routine matters, but declined to provide details. 

 “These are normal agreements that require us to sit down and work with one another, and I’m expecting to be able to work through this,” Breaux said, adding that lease negotiations with Bayou Phoenix cannot proceed until the ownership agreement is complete.

Although maybe "normal" isn't the most reassuring state of affairs at this point. 

Which warehouse has the prettiest decorations?

The committee charged with selecting a redevelopment plan for the Six Flags site is meeting today.  We already know that the preferred use is going involve some sort of warehousing/logistics staging facility.  The group everyone expects to win, Kiernan West, specializes in that sort of thing nationally and seems to be the most well situated (although the financial details aren't yet known to the public.) 

Because this is a city-owned property, though, and especially because it was once an amusement park, the bidders have all been obligated to dress up their proposals with different grab bags full of public-facing amusements of varying worth and which may or may not ever become real. Us real Six Flags heads have been through enough of these exercises to have seen all kinds by now.   No monorail this time, as far as we can tell. But at least one of the proposals has put the zipline idea back in.  You love to see that. 

Developers Wendell Armant, Gerald Billes and Shelly Wills have partnered with lender BlueBell International, design firm Gould Evans and others to build an array of homes and condos, a grocery store, a day care, and a hotel at the site. 

Retail stores, a film studio, an amphitheater and a campground would help round out the $1.85 billion picture, as would a waterpark, wave pool, skate park and zip-line attraction.

But if we were giving odds, we'd probably put that one as the longest shot.  Of course, Kiernan West is the favorite. But the dark horse underdog is something, amusingly called "Bayou Phoenix"  which has to be be considered somewhat of a contender simply because it is Troy Henry. That "private police force" idea seems rather inspired. 

Renaming the entire area Bayou Phoenix "would allow the area to shake the stigma associated with the former Jazzland/Six Flags name," developers said in a city presentation.

A private police force would also provide security on site to protect the massive investment, freeing up the New Orleans Police Department to work solely to manage the crime in the rest of the sprawling 7th District, Henry said.

But, most probably, they will give the deal to Kiernan West. They did, after all, go to the trouble of hiring some NFL players to do the promotional nonsense side of the project.  

In the first round of evaluations in March, a plan from Kiernan West LLC of Colorado and S.H.I.E.L.D 1., a foundation launched by former New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, Saints linebacker Demario Davis and Buffalo Bills cornerback Joshua Norman, scored highest. That project, if chosen Tuesday, would bring an urban farm and a series of educational centers to the site, along with a transportation and logistics center.

What we haven't yet learned, though, is how much will the public pay to subsidize whatever project is chosen. Will the city retain ownership of the land?  Will there be "tax incentives" given away to the developers?  Each proposal includes widely varying estimates of the number "direct" and "indirect" jobs it will create. But we won't get clarity on what that means until we know more about what actually is getting built.

We have to assume in the meantime that the main piece of this will be the warehouse. And aside from worrying about what pretty little schemes go up around the warehouse, we should probably ask how the pay and working conditions will be there.  Is the city adding any stipulations as to how workers are treated on the site? That sounds like something that could be added to a lease agreement.  Will it, though? Probably not. But worth asking about.

Update:  Turns out they couldn't settle on one today. Narrowed down to Kiernan West and Phoenix.  Typically this suggests a play is in the works to maybe cut Henry in on the deal even if it does go to Kiernan West. But who knows.  

Upperdate:  Starting to think maybe Henry's group has a better than even chance now.  Transdev is there, after all.  Also, look what they're bringing. 

The Bayou Phoenix proposal, created by Henry Consulting, TKTMJ Inc and master developer Hillwood of Dallas, scored 417 of 500. That plan would see a logistics hub, a water park, a 200-room hotel and a travel center.

It would also partner with Transdev, a French transit conglomerate that once managed New Orleans' mass transit system, to build light rail transit between Louis Armstrong International Airport in Kenner and the Six Flags property.

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have found our monorail. 

Who is Tonya Pope's secret partner this time?

Tonya Pope is appealing (well, at least making  a public appeal through the media) the city's decision to exclude her from the list of finalists in the latest Six Flags redevelopment sweepstakes. 

TPC-NOLA Inc., which has long sought to revive the former Jazzland theme park at the Six Flags site, said in a formal protest Friday that the selection committee used "inconsistent, subjective and biased scoring" when judging six proposals for the abandoned property.

"Inconsistent, subjective, biased," maybe! That doesn't necessarily have to mean gender bias, specifically, although Pope does claim that too.  But, again, maybe. There certainly seemed to be some degree of favoritism involved when the finalists were announced.  And, besides, Pope knows more about this process than just about anybody by now.  Her company has been one of the very very many who have put together multiple proposals over the course of very very many attempts by the city to snag a developer for this cursed property.  

In the most recent round prior to this one, her plan involved... some kind of wax museum or something? Maybe that sounds wacky, but it's hardly the craziest thing that's been proposed so far. Nor is it any stranger than what the current front-runners have on the table. What's intriguing, though, about Pope's current bid is that the city says she was docked points in the evaluation process for not disclosing an important financial backer.

TPC-NOLA received 328 points. Committee member Nicole Heyman criticized that group for failing to identify its partner company, while committee member Jeff Schwartz rapped it for failing to prove it had obtained financing to build its proposal.  

Pope, the company president, said Friday that while her group did not want to out its partner at the public selection meeting, it is willing to provide that information to committee members privately.

Well who wouldn't be reassured by that?   It's not like Pope's partners in previous bids could have raised any questions.  The wax museum project was supposed to involve former Governor Edwin Edwards.  And in 2014, her proposal was backed by a certain financial outfit of note. 

Paidia's bid calls for a $50 million initial phase that would reconstruct the heart of the Jazzland park by next spring. Much of the money would come from a $25 million construction loan financed by First NBC Bank and federal tax credits for revitalization projects in impoverished neighborhoods. Paidia is also counting on another $10 million in private financing for equipment, $8 million in state tax incentives and $2 million in corporate sponsorships, according to its proposal.

 Really, in hindsight, it's remarkable that one didn't get done.  

Anyway, let's hope the committee takes Pope's complaint seriously enough to giver her another chance. If only so we can find out who the heck she's got on the team this time. 

Ah they brought in a ringer

For those who were curious about what sort of gimmick could possibly breathe new life into the many-failures-over Six Flags redevelopment saga, well, here you go. 

Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration announced that a partnership that included Brees was among the three finalists chosen to redevelop the derelict Six Flags site in New Orleans East, advancing a highly-anticipated effort to breathe life into the 227-acre park that has been abandoned for almost 16 years. 

After a selection committee scored six proposals based on developers' qualifications, financial resources and other factors, the highest scoring contender was a partnership between Kiernan West LLC of Colorado and S.H.I.E.L.D., a foundation launched by Brees, Saints linebacker Demario Davis and Buffalo Bills cornerback Joshua Norman.

That group wants to turn the park into multiple facilities, including an agriculture innovation center that helps young people learn about urban farming.

The actual developer is Kiernan-West which is a corporate real estate firm that has dotted the US map with logistics centers so we can logically conclude that is at least one of the "multiple facilities" in the proposal, if not the main one.  The rest of it is just branding.  And by that we mean they just grabbed a bunch of progressive-sounding twee business buzzwords and mashed them all into one thing for the professional athletes to pitch.

The nonprofit portion, managed by the SHIELD group, would include a facility for urban farming and aquaponics; a “discovery lab” that would provide science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics programming for New Orleans students; a natural healing center, and a food cultural center that would serve as a lecture hall for culinary arts education. The site would also feature a restaurant. 

Future development phases could include a ghost kitchen that would deliver meals to people in need, and a food truck park.

There are so many half-baked ideas going on there it literally reads as though it were being made up as it was dictated. Either that or they were just trying to make sure they hit whatever sweet spot the consultant's report laid out for them. 

A firm the city hired to study the best use for the park said in 2019 that it would work best as a transportation and distribution hub, though that team ended up recommending an “education destination” that could focus on themes such as resiliency and climate change, after talking with residents.

I'm glad they clarified which consultant's report we're working from here because there have been several.  This is the 2019 report by  TIP Strategies and Perkins & Will.  The purpose of glossy papers like this is always to give the developers a paint-by-number scheme for making their project appear to fit the needs of whatever community they are taking advantage of.   I'm disappointed to see that Brees's group did not throw a zipline in with their proposal as the consultants suggested.  But we got the healing center and that always seems to be the key. 

Anyway, between the pro athletes involvement and the jamming in of all the shiny objects, this seems like the proposal that is going to be selected.  And Brees sure does know how to spit out the jargon. 

“I am excited about the ability to present this transformational proposal to the city,” Brees said in a statement about the plan. “It is a vision that we have been working on for more than a year, actively looking for the right site and the right public/private Partnership to launch our non-profit concept. I believe this is it.”

If this means he and this giant real estate firm he's shilling for are going to get their hands on one cent of the city's stimulus allocation for any of this, then it's all the same to us if the whole site just sinks back into the swamp. 

On the other hand,  we do see Troy Henry involved with one of the competing groups so maybe let's wait and see. They're expecting to decide within in the next two or three months.

How big is the Six Flags site?

Over the years I've seen it reported differently a few times. Is it 140 acres or 220 acres or 227 acres or 224 acres or 150 acres?  Today the city's latest RFQ lists it as separate parcels of 162 and 65 acres.  Is that right?  What is happening? 

Under the latest request for qualifications, developers have from this Wednesday, Dec. 16, through to Feb. 9, 2021 to demonstrate their interest and ability to revitalize the area.

Schwartz said the city then hopes to winnow those bidders down to a short-list of potential master developers who will be asked to submit fully-fledged proposals.

He said the city is aiming to choose an exclusive developer, which can be a joint venture, and to have worked out a redevelopment plan by the end of June.

"We're going to do everything we can to stick to that with no more delays," he said.

The city is asking for proposals that include both the 162-acre main site where the abandoned amusement park is located as well as a nearly-adjacent 65-acre site located to the northeast, closer to Bayou Sauvage, between Interstate 10 and Michoud Boulevard and abutting two residential areas that contain several hundred houses.

Guess we'll find out soon enough.  This reclamation project has attracted some truly remarkable ideas from some fascinating people over the years.  Can't wait to see what is in the next exciting batch of presentations.

Well that's what we've got What do y'all got?

Step five ga-jillion and seventy two in a never-ending series of steps toward the time when we inevitably just dynamite the old Six Flags back into the swamp is, yep, more public input.

Come September, residents can sound off about the latest plan to transform the old Six Flags amusement park in New Orleans East, officials said this week.

City officials are considering a plan to turn the site into a place where people can ride ziplines or hike and learn about the shrinking Louisiana coast.

Those kinds of attractions, which have been considered part of the ecotourism or adventure tourism industries, have grown in popularity in the U.S. and globally in recent years.

That's after the latest consultant to plug the site into a random land use generator came back with ZIPLINES OF RESILIENCE. 

Prior to that it was Cyndi Nguyen's Indoor Water Park For Families Presented By Cyndi Nguyen.

Prior to that it was Tonya Pope and Edwin Edwards's Wax Museum

Prior to that it was Frank Scurlock's Zipline and Katrina Museum featuring John Young and a monorail, maybe?

Prior to that it was Scurlock with a different configuration of ziplines

Prior to that it was Pope with "dining and retail"

umm... here is a different consultant being called in

Prior to that Scurlock wanted to do one of those Noah's Ark amusement thingies.

Box retail!

This is sneakily my favorite episode. These guys went to jail after claiming to investors they had a contract to demolish the park for scrap metal.

More consultants!

We can go further back (all the way to Ed Blakely times, in fact) to find other proposals for movie studios, "advanced manufacturing" outlet malls, etc. Most of these presented by Scurlock, Pope, or Danny Rogers over and over again. But somehow we keep landing somewhere in the monorail/zipline zone. 

So, yeah, maybe everybody really is out of ideas. What have y'all got? 

Little Jazzland

A few months ago, the mayor kind of sort of talked about the possibility of demolishing the Six Flags site in East New Orleans. She said she was "running numbers" on it anyway.  Since then, the numbers may or may not have run back we don't have any info on that. What we do know is there was  a consultant's report that recommends we build a "resiliency" theme park there.

The assessment referenced by the mayor's office was commissioned by the New Orleans Business Alliance for the city and released in June. It envisions turning the site into a destination for learning about climate change, resiliency and water issues, and for family-friendly activities such as excursions to the nearby Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge or zip line courses. The analysis also points out the looming threat of coastal land loss that the region faces from the encroaching waters of the Gulf.

Zip line courses!  Look, I know that's no monorail but surely it has to be the next best thing. Good luck figuring out how to develop it, though. We only have the whole fourteen year history of stops, starts, and Scurlocks to show you how much fun that can be.

But enough about the old Jazzland. Say hello to the new.. Jazzland. 

The Cleveland company that recently scooped up two key jazz landmarks in the 400 block of South Rampart Street, a cradle of New Orleans’ most distinctive art form, has acquired a third: The Little Gem Saloon.

The GBX Group now owns the nearby Iroqouis Theater and the Karnofsky tailor shop – both of them important locations in Louis Armstrong’s young life, plus much of the rest of the block bounded by Loyola Avenue and Poydras, South Rampart and Perdido streets.

I'm so old I remember when the Jazz landmarks were going to be redeveloped by Opryland.  Whatever happened to that? It was going to be part of the downtown Disney experience.  Maybe GBX can give us something similar to that. Oh look Drew Brees is an investor.  He really knows how to pick a diamond in the rough so that's encouraging. 

Sparacia has said the hope of the investors – who include New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees – is to rebuild and restore the block in a way that reflects its unique history. For instance, the jazz landmarks could be opened as venues that feature jazz and other music, along the lines of the Little Gem, which was restored and reopened by the Bazan family beginning in 2012.

Sparacia has said GBX will probably also do some “infill” construction along the block, much of which is now occupied by surface parking lots. He said whatever is built will be in sync with the style and scale of the landmarks.

"Infill" construction "in the style of" the landmarks. Sounds like they really are going to build some DisneyNOLA type stuff.  I don't know if that's necessary but anything is better than empty parking lots.  Did they consider connecting the buildings with a zip line, though?

Okay whose idea is this?

Somebody is talking to Cyndi Nguyen about doing something with Six Flags.  She didn't just suddenly get up one day and think, "Hey and indoor water park sounds neato," to herself.

Still, her own ideas for some of the district's most notorious boondoggles and persistent areas of blight can seem a touch outlandish.

Nguyen wants to turn the old Six Flags site, which has been abandoned since just before Katrina, into an indoor water park. The closest outdoor water parks are in Baton Rouge and Gulfport, Mississippi. An indoor park, she said, could be a moneymaker year-round.

Again, no, that's not "her own idea." Somebody brought that to her. The article says she is working with the mayor to "tap a consultant" for advice on Six Flags (which, I mean, good lord, right?) and she's certainly gotten some input. I think I've seen Tonya Pope's organization tweet at the mayor a few times. (How is that wax museum coming along, by the way?) Toward the end of this article we see one of the several previously rejected bidders for the property, Danny Rodgers, showed up at the IDB meeting where they agreed to let Cantrell take over the process. Rodgers, at the time, was still talking about a water park. Maybe he's talking to Nguyen now. 

I hope someone talks to her about this, though.  The people of this city... and the Lower Ninth Ward, in particular... have had just about enough nonsense about how we're going to solve our problems with branding.

She’s also dropping little hints that District E, which comprises New Orleans East and the Lower 9th Ward, needs a new attitude. She calls her district “The E,” while the Lower 9th Ward has become “The L9,” nicknames she hopes will subtly shift public perceptions.

But what about the wax museum?

Good news! The Cantrell Administration is not ready to give up on redeveloping the Six Flags site.  They just need another year maybe.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell wants her shot at finding a developer for the abandoned Six Flags property in New Orleans East, and the Industrial Development Board has agreed to give her a year to try.

The board on Tuesday (June 12) voted to enter into a new agreement with Cantrell's administration after the agreement with former Mayor Mitch Landrieu expired on May 31. The agreement essentially allows the city to control the redevelopment process for the 227-acre amusement park that was abandoned after Hurricane Katrina.

Only one disgruntled former bidder shows up near the end of the article this time. (There's at least one in every new episode of this. It's kind of a running trope.) But it doesn't give us an update on Tonya Pope's Edwin Edwards funded wax museum.  I'd like to read more about that.  Will it exist before a plan for the Six Flags site does?

Can we build a monorail out of wax?

During his final year in office Mitch Landrieu learned for himself something that many others had discovered before him.  Nobody knows what to do with Six Flags.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration has not been able to find anyone to redevelop the site of the old Six Flags amusement park in New Orleans East, meaning the property will pass, untouched, from one mayor to another for a second time.

A Landrieu adviser conceded Tuesday that she had no news to share with the public board that manages the site, nearly a year after the same adviser announced Landrieu’s office would take the lead on redeveloping it.

Responsibility for the vacant 140-acre property now falls to the 15-member Industrial Development Board and Mayor-elect LaToya Cantrell, who will be sworn in next month.

When Mitch took charge of the proposals last year, it sparked a round of rumors and conspiracy theories about one or another ways a "fix" might be in the works.  Who knows if any of that was true. I suspect none of it was. But whatever he had in mind, it turned out "the timing" just wasn't right for it. Or at least, according to him, in retrospect, this is the reason nothing has happened.

But no such plans have materialized, Conwell said Tuesday, though she said the city still believes the site can be financially successful.

She also hinted that any project that might have come through was complicated by Landrieu’s impending exit from office.

“It is logical that anyone considering such an investment on this site would, given the timing, want to avoid the transition period between administrations,” Conwell said.

So they're saying there's a chance.

But, really, should they even be encouraging anyone at this point? The previous several attempts at this resulted in escalating frustrations at the Industrial Development Board as the same two or three bidders kept coming back with different versions of the same harebrained schemes. It got so bad at one point that the board called the proposals, "an insult to the people of New Orleans." This is also, famously, the process by which we came to know Frank Scurlock. And look how well that worked out.

But it was never only about Scurlock. There were other serial bidders with strange ideas and shoddy financing as well.  Does anybody remember this scrap metal scam, for example?  I think that's the only instance where the foolishness rose to the level of actual criminal activity. But there's always been the potential for that. And, of course, there is still time for more. Which is why it's a good idea to keep an eye out for anything having to do with Six Flags that maybe seems a little off. For example, there is this nugget at the bottom of the above linked Advocate story.

There was at least some positive news Tuesday: Developer Tonya Pope, who has long sought to revive the former Jazzland Theme Park at the site, announced that she will build a $20 million wax museum near the site instead.

That’s a modified version of a plan she and her partner, the now-closed Musee Conti, announced last year to feature the museum’s wax figures as a Jazzland theme park attraction.

Jazzland operated only two seasons before going bankrupt. It was sold in 2002 to Six Flags Entertainment, which had its own financial problems over its three-year tenure and never reopened the site after Katrina.

Pope said her project has received financial backing from former Gov. Edwin Edwards and is expected to be open by late 2018 or 2019.

Pope doesn't have Six Flags but she does have $20 million to build a wax museum near the still rotting site of Six Flags. That seems normal.

Previous to this, Pope has been involved with a company called  TPC-NOLA, a partner in bids on the property going back at least as far as 2011 when it was eliminated in the early rounds.  The next year, the winner of that prestigious contest sank into the swamp after the Riverwalk outlet mall redevelopment basically duplicated what they wanted to do in a better location.

The process didn't begin again until 2014 when IDB had a hard time getting anybody to apply.  Only Pope's group had put together a bid before the application deadline. This time, they claimed to have "spent the last two years maturing the plan and getting a lot more support from the community and business leaders."  What she meant was that they got Ashton Ryan's Money Club to buy in.

Much of the money would come from a $25 million construction loan financed by First NBC Bank and federal tax credits for revitalization projects in impoverished neighborhoods. Paidia is also counting on another $10 million in private financing for equipment, $8 million in state tax incentives and $2 million in corporate sponsorships, according to its proposal.

This is exactly the kind of shaky investment scheme that would go on to cause the spectacular collapse of FNBC. (Please see the Advocate's excellent reporting over the past year and a half.) The IDB seemed to sense a problem at the time. So they extended the deadline.  Only Scurlock showed up to join in the bidding, though. Unsurprisingly, his proposal was even less sound than Pope's and the whole thing was scrapped again.

Throughout this process, the IDB became increasingly uncomfortable with its position as a landlord. It's not really something that board is set up to do. So it was desperate to just sell the property off in 2016 when Pope came calling again.  But it wasn't clear what her plans were for development. Something about "mixed-use" dining and retail or whatever. But evidently not enough to convince anyone of anything.

In 2017, she came back again, along with Scurlock and a surprise last-minute bidder who just jumped up out of the audience.

As the board heard from the two groups making purchase offers as listed on the agenda, Henry Klein, an attorney who said he represents 30/90 Development, said his group wants to offer $5.5 million for the property, while giving no details who's involved in the group or their plans for the Six Flags site. Klein left the meeting while it was still ongoing.

IDB member Justin Augustine said people jumping out of the audience to make an offer is "not a professional process" and urged the board to use a more professional method to receive offers.

It was shortly after this episode that Mitch stepped in saying he was going to find a developer on his own.  Last month, we were not surprised to learn he was unsuccessful.  But, hey, the new mayor is installed now. And maybe we'll see where it goes when she gets back around to dealing with this. In the meantime, Pope will (maybe) be right there in the neighborhood playing around with her wax dolls or whatever. 

Take my swamp, please

Danae Columbus gets a little salty with the mayor here.

Armed with the proper resources and consultants, (IDB Chair Alan) Philipson is quite capable of directing a fair and impartial selection process to identify a well-qualified developer for the former Six Flags site. Instead of providing Philipson with the tools he needed, Landrieu has decided to run the process himself – a la the World Trade Center – and will get one last shot to give a major piece of New Orleans real estate to his hand-selected cronies.

Is it a "major piece" of real estate, though?  It looks more like a rusting junkyard sinking into swamp. We've had three rounds of questionably financed hucksters trying to make far-fetched plays for it all of which were rejected.  Maybe Columbus is right to be suspicious of the mayor's move to expedite matters. But it's just as likely he's motivated by a desire to have this done with as it is nefarious "cronyism."

Unless Scurlock ends up with the property. In that case, yes, something fishy will have happened. 

Tricentennial Land

This clears up a question we had about the Six Flags deal yesterday.

The deal also gives the IDB final say over any plan Landrieu’s office draws up, pursuant to state law, but Landrieu is seeking to change that law in the coming months.

A bill that cleared a House committee last week would give the City Council final say-so over contracts the IDB approves, which could include leases, sales or other deals. If that bill becomes law before the city is able to find a developer for the site, it could apply to a Six Flags deal.

The goal is to transfer the final decision making responsibility over to the city. This agreement is just a midway point toward that.

Regardless of who is making the choice, the prospects for the property are still grim. The same pool of questionably qualified bidders has been rejected three times by DIN. It's hard to imagine what the mayor's office can bring to the process that would be any different besides maybe lowered standards. Also there's the incentive of a deadline that comes with the end of Landrieu's term and his desire to turn the city's 300th birthday into his own showcase of personal achievements.  Seems like sober conditions under which to reach a wise decision.

Setting everything up for the turnover to Mayor Scurlock

According to this, the mayor's office is taking the fate of the Six Flags site back into its own hands.  Sort of.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration officially took over future decisions about the old Six Flags amusement park in New Orleans East under an agreement approved Tuesday (May 9) by the economic development board that owns the shuttered 220-acre property.

The New Orleans Industrial Development Board voted unanimously to reject three pending offers to buy the property and instead enter a cooperative endeavor agreement with the Landrieu administration for one year. The Landrieu administration will handle marketing the property and evaluating any proposals, in hopes of finally getting the long-blighted property revived.

I say, sort of, because as we read further we see that the IDB is still responsible for security and maintenance and, apparently, will have the final say on whatever the mayor decides.   At one point in this process, IDB termed a round of bids from potential developers an "insult to the people of New Orleans" Supposedly whatever they've agreed to gives the mayor a heavier thumb on the scale there. Maybe he'll be more forgiving.  We know Mayor Scurlock will, anyway.

Tomorrow he will talk about the monorail

Today's presentations at IDB from the perpetual Six Flags bidders didn't go well.

Three offers to buy the decaying Six Flags park in New Orleans East failed to win favor from a review committee of the Industrial Development Board on Thursday (March 16), leaving the future of the 227-acre property murky again.

A three-member committee of the Industrial Development Board, which owns the shuttered park, decided not to recommend any of the three buyout offers, pointing to concerns about accepting a deal without knowing whether the buyer has the financial backing to quickly clean up and redevelop the park.

"We're anxious to see something happen with Six Flags, but we're not anxious to see it wind up for an unknown period with blight," said board president Alan Philipson.

I'm sorry, I've lost track. This is like the third or fourth go-round for the IDB in this process. It might help matters along if the same people didn't keep showing up to bid time after time.  But no such luck.  Here is Frank Scurlock's latest pitch. It has a little bit of everything. 

During the meeting Thursday, Scurlock unveiled his team's new plans for the property, holding up a poster wrapped in brown paper. "In this sealed package is the future of that property," Scurlock said. He peeled away the wrapping paper to reveal an aerial map of the Six Flags park marked with areas for a water park, theme park, zip line area, a resort hotel and a Hurricane Katrina museum. Scurlock suggested he'll have more to present at the board meeting Friday.

The "Katrina museum" is a new one on me.  A few weeks ago he said there would be a monorail too. Maybe that's what will wow the board and turn this whole thing around. 

What about us brain dead slobs?

The Six Flags endgame may be at hand. And it is looking pretty darn hilarious. The bidding parties, after having failed multiple times to wear down the IDB on their own, have decided to see what happens if they gang up.

Two developers who have made separate offers to buy the abandoned Six Flags amusement park site in New Orleans East are considering making a joint offer for the property.

Frank Scurlock, the owner of Scurlock Entertainment, said Tuesday that he's been talking with Henry Klein of 30/90 Development about teaming up to try to buy and redevelop the park.

“We are in communication ... and are exploring the possibility,” Scurlock said.

Klein confirmed that it was “highly likely" the two men would present a joint proposal to the Industrial Development Board, the public board that manages the city-owned site.

Let's see, if we take your worthless twice rejected bid and combine it with my worthless, rejected bid, well then, worthless X worthless =....   Hey, you know when you've got one Billy Joe at quarterback and that's not working out so well and you think, OK but what if we had TWO Billy Joes at quarterback!  That's kind of what this is like. 

Also what is Scurlock still doing here? When we last saw him he said he was giving up on Six Flags and taking his Noah's Ark or his Zip Line or whatever (his idea has changed several times) and scooting off to Jefferson Parish never to speak on this again. 

Turns out he was just there to pick up a new friend.

Scurlock has hired former Jefferson Parish President John Young to represent him before the board.

During a board meeting last month, he offered $4.5 million in cash for the property but then said he was pulling the offer after board members declined to consider it on the spot.

At the same meeting, Klein said he’d pay $5.5 million but conceded that he didn’t have all of the money available immediately.

Ok well let's welcome John Young aboard to whatever the new scheme is. We also should emphasize that Klein's proposal at the last meeting was basically just him jumping out of the audience and, on the spot, offering the $5.5 million he didn't have. He also didn't have an actual proposal he could describe in much detail.  

As the board heard from the two groups making purchase offers as listed on the agenda, Henry Klein, an attorney who said he represents 30/90 Development, said his group wants to offer $5.5 million for the property, while giving no details who's involved in the group or their plans for the Six Flags site. Klein left the meeting while it was still ongoing.

IDB member Justin Augustine said people jumping out of the audience to make an offer is "not a professional process" and urged the board to use a more professional method to receive offers. Board members noted that analysis of offers will go beyond the purchase price and include a look at what's being proposed on the site and the financial capacity of the developers.

At the time, that struck us as particularly funny.  We're always on the lookout for monorail salesmen when it comes to land use stuff around here. When we read about Klein's stunt, we went and got the meme out and everything.



But that's kind of a tired gag now, anyway. Surely we aren't still dealing with the sort of people who... oh goddammit. 

If the board chooses him, Scurlock said he plans to open what he called the first phase of his project — essentially a preview of the rides that would eventually be open at the park — on Memorial Day weekend.

That preview would include smaller attractions that would be set up in a parking lot outside the abandoned park’s gates, as well as tram rides that would take visitors on a tour of the soon-to-be constructed park, he said.

Well, okay. Good luck to all involved. The next IDB meeting is March 17.