It really will be Kern World

"Major amusements" are expected to emanate from the Times-Picayune building.  And, no, we don't mean Jeff Duncan's column.

The former Times-Picayune building on Howard Avenue is under consideration for redevelopment as a “major amusement facility,” and its new owners received the first step of approval Tuesday from New Orleans city officials toward the rezoning that would allow such a project.


The group that bought the 9-acre site — comprised of some of the top developers in New Orleans — has requested “mixed use” zoning instead of the current “business industrial park” designation, though they revealed few details about what they plan for the location. The city planning staff initially objected to the zoning change — on the grounds that the street network couldn’t bear the traffic a mixed-use development would bring, that the uses allowed wouldn’t fit with the surroundings, and because it would encroach on a dwindling amount of industrial land near the city center — prompting a new round of meetings between developers and city officials.

That communication did not sway the city planning staff, but it did lead to the disclosure that the intended redevelopment of the site is for a “major indoor and outdoor amusement facility” — not a residential development, according to a Jan. 23 letter from the developers.

“It’s no secret. There’s a specific tenant we are working with,” said attorney Mike Sherman in Tuesday’s hearing before the City Planning Commission. “We hope it works out. We don’t know.”

If "it's no secret," then why don't they tell us who the "specific tenant" is?  Is it just that Kern is moving the planned "indoor trampoline facility" up the block a little bit? If so, that hardly qualifies as  a "major amusement." What else could this be?