A private investor has signed a 50-year ground lease on the former Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic church and school campus, securing control of an entire city block bounded by Canal, South Lopez, Cleveland and South Rendon streets in Mid-City. The transaction, executed through the Archdiocese of New Orleans, was not publicly announced. Financial terms were not disclosed, though the Archdiocese had listed the block-spanning property for $2.28 million, or approximately $22 a square foot, when it put it on the market three years ago.

The leaseholder is Danny McKearan, a New Orleans investor. McKearan called the block-sized campus a vote of confidence in the city, saying he was attracted by its size, location and its more than a century of history as an anchor of Mid-City. The property sits at the intersection of the Canal Street corridor, the Medical District, and Mid-City’s established residential neighborhoods. Sacred Heart parish was established on Canal Street by the Holy Cross Fathers in 1879, and the church building itself has a direct historical connection to the neighborhood: the site is claimed as the location where Louis Armstrong was baptized in 1901. The existing church sanctuary and rectory, designed by local architects Emile Weil and Albert Bendernagel, were completed in 1927.

The deal carries a significant structural constraint. A portion of the campus currently operates as Sacred Heart Apartments, run by Unity of Greater New Orleans to house veterans in need of permanent supportive housing. The Apartments component is operating under a long-term sublease from Unity that was in place before McKearan’s acquisition, and he confirmed he intends to honor that existing agreement. As a result, McKearan’s redevelopment options in the near term are limited to the church sanctuary and rectory buildings rather than the larger two-block campus. He said his immediate focus is on stabilizing the property structurally and establishing a long-term maintenance program before pursuing any specific redevelopment plans.

The Sacred Heart acquisition is McKearan’s second purchase from the Archdiocese. In 2024 he acquired the former Bishop Perry Center on Dauphine Street in Faubourg Marigny for $1.1 million. No permits for construction work at that property have been filed with the city in the 18 months since that purchase, and McKearan declined to respond to questions about his timeline for that site. No permits for the Sacred Heart campus have been filed either, and McKearan said plans for the site are still being evaluated.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has been strategically selling and leasing surplus properties as it continues to consolidate its real estate portfolio following declining parish membership and the financial pressures of recent years. The Sacred Heart campus sale removes one of the last large-scale underdeveloped parcels along the upper Canal Street corridor from archdiocese ownership and places it in the hands of a private investor who has described a long-term, decade-spanning perspective on the site’s future use.

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