All we do is build nice things for rich people

That Opportunity Zone is creating some real opportunities, let me tell you.

The historic Whitney National Bank building on St. Charles Avenue in the Central Business District has been sold to developers Mike Wampold and Lenny Lemoine, who plan to bring in a high-end boutique hotel to occupy most of the space after renovation.

The 108-year-old, 14-story building that had once been the tallest in New Orleans, was occupied by Whitney Bank until early this year. Whitney merged with Gulfport Mississippi-based Hancock in 2011, and in January the bank's 600 employees decamped to the nearby 51-story Hancock Whitney Center on Poydras Street, a modern skyscraper that is currently the city's tallest.

Let's see here... we're gonna Ctrl-F and look for "affordable housing" and.. .no, not there, no... oh wait what is this? 

Wampold said the partners have been talking to several groups that might operate the planned boutique hotel. "I think whoever we get in there will be the kind of hotel that would draw the clientele that this location should command," he said. "It would be a cool and hip kind of group."

Hmm no that's not it. Man there has to be something, though, because we have just gone through a whole discussion about the housing crisis and the proliferation of STRs and the fact that the hoteliers are hogging all the high ground and all.. oh dear. 

The tower covers four of the buildings and the developers expect to convert the remaining three into condominiums or some kind of timeshare or shorter-stay accommodation.

That's right I remember. City Council just recently passed a rule that allows more timeshares in the CBD. They sure did!  And didn't they just write into the new STR rules a thing where commercial/mixed use zones can just load up with as many as they want? Yep they sure did that too!  
Well okay, so our elected leaders have shaped the regulatory framework in a way that invites the development of more and more nice things for rich people to the detriment of everything and everyone else. At least we aren't just out and out subsidizing this activity.. .oh wait... oh dammit.

Gensler and local architect John C. Williams have been hired as the design team to draw up plans to present to the Historic District Landmarks Commission and other bodies that will have to sign off on the project in order for it to be eligible for the tax credits that make it work financially. The owners plan to keep most of the internal features of the building, including its brass, wood and marble features, as well as its vintage Westinghouse elevators.

The new owners also expect to bring in outside investors at some point, Wampold said, to take advantage of the Opportunity Zone capital gains tax breaks that are available for the building, despite its prime downtown location.