Stephen Tidmore

According to the Downtown Development District of New Orleans, there are many projects underway in the downtown area. Nine have been recently completed, 14 are under construction, five are in the pre-development state, and 14 have been planned or announced. With all this construction and renovation, is the recession having any effect on the Central Business District and surrounding areas? To start looking for answers, I met with Brian Gibbs of Gibbs Construction and Jeannie Tidy, Real Estate Development Manager with the Downtown Development District.

Most of the projects underway are residential; some are hotels, offices, and historical renovations. One example is the 21-story building going up at 930 Poydras Street. It will contain 250 apartments stacked on top of an eight-story parking garage and is expected to have its first residents by the end of 2009. Gibbs is the developer for the building and it’s a prime example of a major project springing up in the midst of the recession. According to Gibbs, there’s no way a project like his would ever be possible without the federal and state tax incentives that have been poured into certain areas of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. In some ways, this assistance has helped shield those areas from any severe effects of the recession, but Gibbs offered another reason why New Orleans hasn’t been hit hard. “We never really had the big up, so we’re not gonna get the big down”, Gibbs said.

After touring the construction project with Gibbs, I met with Jeannie Tidy to learn more about the Downtown Development District (DDD) and the projects they’re working on. The mission of the DDD is “to drive the development of downtown New Orleans and be the catalyst for a prosperous, stimulating, innovative heart of the Crescent City.” Among other things, they offer assistance with finding property for lease or purchase, assist developers and building owners with federal and state incentives, offer retail support with a specific emphasis on historic Canal Street, and run a façade improvement project. In meeting with Tidy, it became immediately clear that they have big plans for downtown New Orleans and aren’t slowing down for the recession one bit.