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Victory Real Estate Wins Demo Permit in Mid-City
January 2, 2008
Original The Times-Picayune (posted on nola.com) article→
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Demolition is expected to begin in two to three months on the former hospital, which has been shuttered since Hurricane Katrina flooded its basement with water. But it could take two to three years, or longer, before Victory Real Estate Investments LLC breaks ground on a new project.
The Times-Picayune
Victory Real Estate Wins Demolition Permit for Lindy Boggs Medical Center
Posted by Jen DeGregorio
December 31, 2007 4:35PM
A Georgia real estate firm planning to build a sprawling mixed-use development in New Orleans’ Mid-City neighborhood won city approval Monday to demolish the Lindy Boggs Medical Center, which now stands vacant on a chunk of land considered crucial to the project.
Demolition is expected to begin in two to three months on the former hospital, which has been shuttered since Hurricane Katrina flooded its basement with water. But it could take two to three years, or longer, before Victory Real Estate Investments LLC breaks ground on a new project. The company has postponed construction in response to a shaky national real estate market, which has been reeling from a sub-prime mortgage crisis that has sent home sales plummeting and tightened bank lending, said Richard F. Cortizas, Victory’s attorney.
Developers plan to sod the hospital property on North Jefferson Davis Parkway and keep it as fenced-off green space until market conditions improve.
“If a good, economically viable project came up in six months, we would look into it,” Cortizas said. “Otherwise, they’re not developing it in the near future.”
Monday’s vote by the Housing Conservation District Review Committee to allow Lindy Boggs’ destruction marks the third time Victory sought the city planning board’s permission to bulldoze the facility. Cortizas first asked for a demolition permit in November, but the committee postponed the request after Mid-City residents complained that developers had not apprised them of plans for the property. The committee deferred a second request earlier this month after Cortizas asked for more time to meet with city officials about the project.
Monday’s committee hearing passed without protest by Mid-City residents, who have since met with Victory and are now “neutral” about the demolition, said Jennifer Weishaupt, vice president of the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization. Weishaupt told the committee that she expects Victory to cooperate with the neighborhood, which wants to work on a joint vision for the Lindy Boggs property.
Victory officials have been vague about their intentions for the parcel. But at an April meeting with the Mid-City group, developers did say they planned to incorporate the property into a larger project that would stretch half a square mile between Jefferson Davis Parkway to North Solomon Street and from Toulouse Street to Bienville Avenue.
According to designs presented at the April meeting, development would come in two phases.
The first would encompass the area bordered by North Carrollton Avenue, Toulouse Street, Jefferson Davis Parkway and Bienville Avenue. The design would include residences along Bienville Avenue, Toulouse Street and Jefferson Davis Parkway. Shops would face Conti Street between Jefferson Davis and North Scott Street with more than 2,500 parking spaces located in a garage and surface lot.
The second stage would likely include retail uses on the lots where a now abandoned Bohn Ford dealership and a vacant strip mall stand on North Carrollton Avenue.
Cortizas described the plans presented in April as “preliminary” and subject to change. He would not comment on the status of the larger development.
Mid-City neighbors would like to see some sort of medical use, such as a clinic or doctors’ offices, rise from the ashes of the Lindy Boggs, Weishaupt said. Since Katrina, the neighborhood has been without a full-service hospital.
A new acute care building, however, is unlikely.
A deal struck between Ochsner Health System and Tenet Healthcare Corp., which sold Lindy Boggs to Victory in May for $9.4 million, prohibits the facility’s reopening or the development a new hospital on the property. Ochsner’s contract last year to purchase three other New Orleans-area hospitals owned by Tenet hinged on a promise from the publicly traded Dallas firm to prevent acute care on the land.
A full-service hospital would be off limits, while “sub-acute” services, such as a clinic, would be allowed. Warner Thomas, Ochsner’s president and chief operating officer, said the arrangement with Tenet stemmed from a desire to protect the health system’s investment in Memorial Medical Center. That Uptown New Orleans hospital, now called Ochsner Baptist Medical Center, was one of the three sites Ochsner acquired from Tenet.
The pact between Ochsner and Tenet stymied at least one attempt to revive the Lindy Boggs. A group of doctors last year offered to buy and refurbish the damaged hospital from Tenet, according to Dr. Robert Kenny, the former president of Lindy Boggs’ medical staff and a member of the group. But according to Kenny, Tenet rejected the doctors’ offer and instead sold to Victory.
Tenet has a contract with Victory to keep acute care off of the Lindy Boggs land for the next three years, Tenet spokesman Steven Campanini told The Times-Picayune.
Cortizas said he did not know of plans by Victory to pursue other medical uses for the Lindy Boggs property.
Jen DeGregorio can be reached at jdegregorio@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3495
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