Gawker recently published a great interview with HRI Properties founder Pres Kabacoff.  Our friends at Gambit were the first to spot Gawker’s interview, which deals with gentrification, housing, and major development projects throughout NOLA.

Some highlights from the article:

• Total Reach: HRI has developed some “9,000 or 10,000 units in the center city—the warehouse district, the central business district.”

• Rental prices are rising: In 2000, the average family spent only 13 percent of their income on rent in the city –  it now stands at 35 percent.

• HRI’s trick to make affordable housing development profitable: “The trick is to get market rate to come.”  HRI does one-third mark, one-third workforce, and one-third former public housing.

• Thought’s on gentrification?  “If you’re not growing, you’re dying. It’s certainly not a good solution to stop development to protect neighborhoods…the cold truth is, if you’re going to revitalize a neighborhood that’s in bad shape or where market rate won’t go…one of the realities is that when the market rate come in, those people move to another neighborhood. It’s a pain in the ass, but they move.”

You can check out the full article here.

 

 

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