Yes, but do the elevators work?

If so, I hope they don't run on diesel fuel.

In early August, hundreds of gallons of diesel leaked from storage tanks located at the abandoned Naval base in the Bywater neighborhood into nearby waterways, documents from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality show. The fuel spilled from an above ground container onto the soil below, seeped into the drainage system and traveled approximately two miles to the Florida Avenue Canal. After discharging into the canal, the diesel flowed another half mile into the reservoir of a Sewerage and Water Board drainage pump station.

I don't mean to hit you with too many spoilers from this story. But the tl;dr is this. When the Naval base closed, the city took over the property with a plan to redevelop it. Then Cedric Grant diverted all of the FEMA money for that into Sewerage and Water Board. The WWLTV story linked in the article says it went to drainage projects that haven't moved past the design phase. Maybe Cedric just bought a couch with it. Anyway, the diversion of the funds left the city and the developer in limbo over who was responsible for security and hazard mitigation. And so nobody did any of that. And now we have diesel fuel leaking into the surrounding waterways.

But despite all of this, some version of the original deal may still be on.  At least that's what the city seems to want.  The developer, who happens to be Joe Jaeger, by the way, is a bit more hesitant.  I will highlight the reason why for you in this quote.

Cantrell’s office is currently working to broker a new agreement with EMDRC, Dyer said. The city will not dedicate funds to the project, he explained, because the developer will be fully responsible for financing construction costs according to the revised contract, which the city plans to execute by the end of the year.  “When we came into office the project was behind about two years. But as of December 31, it will be completely caught up,” he said.

Without going into specifics, Dyer said redevelopment plans have been adjusted to account for current realities. “We now have more information on the condition of the buildings and what can be done, allowing the developer and the city to negotiate a more precise lease.”

Last month, Jaeger told The Lens he was unsure if he will move forward with the deal. “I just work on the construction side of things, and I’m getting to the end of my rope waiting for the city to do its part,” he said.

There is still one way the city could agree to put some money into it, though.  It's a long shot but it appears, at least from this report in September, to have been on the table recently.

Interest in the potential for moving City Hall was kicked off Tuesday morning when Cantrell, answering a question about the future of Municipal Auditorium in Armstrong Park during a breakfast appearance before the Bureau of Governmental Research, suggested the currently vacant building would make for a good site for a new City Hall.

But Montaño said a few hours later that no decisions have been made and the auditorium is just one of several options being considered.

At this point, he said, all city-owned buildings are on the table, including some that would be logistically difficult or are already spoken for.

A brief list of potential sites Montaño went through included Municipal Auditorium but also the former Veterans Affairs building where officials cut the ribbon Tuesday on a "low-barrier" homeless shelter and the former Naval Support Activity property, a long-abandoned site at the edge of the Industrial Canal.

I thought it was odd to see the Naval base mentioned as a City Hall site. It still seems like an extremely remote possibility. But at least now we can see why the thought even came up.  They're just trying to match problem properties with rationales for putting money into them.