World Trade Center Opportunity Draws 11 Developers

by • November 20, 2014 • Development, Hotel & Hospitality, Public DevelopmentComments (1)6304

The proposed W Hotel & Residences.

The proposed W Hotel & Residences.

The vacant former World Trade Center building in New Orleans is getting ready to be redeveloped into a new riverfront property as developers bid to the city’s request for qualification.

The city requires the existing building to remain and desires the space to be used as a first class commercial and/or mixed-use project, which may include a hotel, luxury residential, retail or other professional office use.

This RFQ comes after yet another unraveling of negotiations with a former winning bidder.   Here’s a brief description of the teams and submissions:

2 Canal Redevelopment LLC (New Orleans) is made up of local hoteliers Darryl Berger, Joe Jaeger and Roger Ogden.  The group has proposed building a Hilton Conrad Hotel & Residences with 300 hotel rooms on 11 floors. The remaining floors would include 225 residential units. would include some one-, two- and three-bedroom suites. The upper floors would house about 225 residential units.

HRI Properties (New Orleans) proposed a 252-room Andaz hotel by Hyatt and 295 luxury apartments, plus commercial space.

ITM Development of New Orleans proposes a $256 million renovation into a 684-room hotel and upper-floor residences with a new five-story building upriver for retail, restaurant and meeting space.  According to nola.com, this team is made up of:  Lawrence Blake Jones, a local attorney; David Anderson, First NBC Bank’s vice chairman; William Aaron Jr., a managing shareholder with law firm Aaron & Gianna; Henry Coaxum Jr., whose company operates seven McDonald’s restaurants in the New Orleans area; William Hindman Jr., a hotel developer; Robert Tucker, founder of Integrated Logistical Support; Iam Tucker, president-owner of engineering firm ILSI; and Joshua Rubenstein, an attorney and developer.

Columbia Sussex Corp. (Kentucky) proposed a 400-room hotel branded through either Marriott, Hilton or Starwood. Their six-page response said they may also consider adding residential units to their proposal.

Gatehouse Capital Corp. + Provident Realty (Dallas) plans a 245 room W Hotel and Residences (290 units), which is essentially the same plan they had earlier last year when they were selected as the winning bidder, prior to negotiations falling apart.  Total project would cost $190 million.

Two Canal Street Investors (Houston) has proposed a 318-room Hotel Alessandra with 240 apartments, a roughly $200 million project, plus a music lounge and restaurant.  The group is made up of Dallas-based Woodbine Development Corp. and New York based Monday Properties.

Carpenter & Co. of Cambridge, Mass. and Woodward Interests LLC of New Orleans. Together, the group proposes a 350-room Four Seasons hotel and 40 apartments.

Hixon Development (New Orleans) proposed a $200 million Hard Rock Hotel and apartments with an entertainment venue.

Oxford Capital Group LLC (Chicago): This group wants to do a 516-room Godfrey Hotel, 166 apartments,  and an adjacent retail-entertainment building.

Geller Investment Co. (Chicago) This team wants to do a 220 room top end hotel with apartments and meeting space.  No brand name was given.

Samuel Burfict and family: This guy just submitted a four-page, handwritten proposal requesting that the city to donate or sell the building for $1 to the family to create a “miniature United Nations.”

The city will evaluate each group based on their history, financial capabilities, and qualifications. Then, they will choose the companies to move onto a “request for proposals phase” which will be released to those chosen onJanuary 2nd. Those developers will then have until February 16th to submit their plans.

 

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One Response to World Trade Center Opportunity Draws 11 Developers

  1. […] For more information on the other 6 proposals that didn’t make the cut, click here. […]

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