After years of disinvestment, lower St. Charles Avenue seeing a burst of redevelopment (2024)

As a student at St. Augustine High School in the early 2010s, Curtis Lawrence never dreamed he’d one day be a real estate developer with property on prestigious St. Charles Avenue. But after graduating from Southern University and founding a successful trucking company, Lawrence began to invest in real estate.

When the former Sarouk Rugs building at 1304 St. Charles Ave. went up for sale in late 2021 for $700,000, the opportunity seemed too good to pass up. Lawrence bought the property, demolished the building, and recently secured financing to begin an estimated $4 million new construction project on the site.

Later this summer, he plans to break ground on a four-story building with ground-floor retail space, three large condo units—one per floor—and a rooftop bar and restaurant.

“We’re going to really make the block nice,” said Lawrence, 33, whose property is adjacent to the former Emeril’s Delmonico building, currently listed for sale at $3.9 million. “I’m young and ambitious and trying to do something to help the community.”

Lawrence’s project is one of several new investments along lower St. Charles Avenue. For years, the nearly mile-long strip between Interstate 10 and Jackson Avenue was a wonky mix of hotels, seedy bars, casual eateries and disinvested storefronts. Lately, there has been a flurry of activity.

Adjacent to Lawrence’s lot on the other side from Emeril’s Delmonico, Baptist Community Ministries is spending an estimated $5 million renovating the two-story former Whitney Bank building it acquired in 2021 for $5 million. Later this year, the foundation will relocate its headquarters from the CBD to the 20,000-square-foot building.

Up the street at 1500 St. Charles, a vacant lot listed for $2 million is under contract to an undisclosed buyer, who hopes to build a mixed-use development on the site, according to the property’s listing agent.

At 1600 St. Charles, investors are renovating the former St. Charles Athletic Club building they bought in 2021. It will house medical offices on the second floor and retail downstairs.

In the 1900 block, the former Trolley Stop Café is soon to be demolished to make way for a four-story condo development.

And several new restaurants have been attracted to the area. Among them: Tito’s Ceviche and Pisco, which opened last fall in the former St. Charles Tavern space, and a high-end steakhouse, Gaia, which plans to open in the former Melting Pot restaurant later this summer.

The investments come as nearby Oretha Castle Haley in Central City continues its decade-long redevelopment, a process that community activists have championed for its wins and also criticized for the gentrification it has brought—like the short-term rental “village” of high-end party houses under development nearby.

Elected officials say while they work to maintain a healthy mix of residential and commercial interests in the area, they welcome the influx of new investment to an area that had too many vacant storefronts for too long.

“We’re excited about the new development on lower St. Charles, which, frankly, needs some love,” said Councilmember Lesli Harris, who represents the area.

A good neighbor

Of all the investments, perhaps is none is more significant in terms of its size or what is symbolizes than BCM’s redevelopment of the former Whitney Bank Building at 1320 St. Charles Ave.

The foundation, formed with proceeds from the sale of Baptist Hospital in the mid-1990s, has granted more than $225 million to nonprofits over the past two decades as it quietly played a key role in the redevelopment of New Orleans after Katrina.

BCM Executive Director Inman Houston said the decision to invest $10 million on Lower St. Charles speaks to the foundation’s commitment to the city and its desire to work side-by-side with the nonprofit organizations it supports through philanthropy.

“We want to be a good neighbor and play a role in the lifting up that part of the city,” Houston said. “We don’t have a vision for what it should look like, but we want to be part of a collective vision for what something can look like and we want to see that area flourish.”

To that end, BCM’s new headquarters will have a large open space, where its grantees can come hold meetings, trainings or share in co-working space, “which has been hard to do from the 29^th floor of the old Texaco building downtown,” Houston said.

Spillover effect

Commercial real estate experts say they see a couple of trends at work. For one, they say, there has been a “spillover effect” from the redevelopment of the Central Business District, which has seen older office properties converted to hotels, apartments and short-term rental buildings.

That spillover is having an impact on the redevelopment of Central City between Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, Carondelet Street, Martin Luther King Boulevard and the Pontchatrain Expressway, where the former Brown’s Dairy site is being redeveloped, in part, to accommodate dozens of high-end short-term rental houses.

Lawrence is capitalizing on the interest in the area with another investment he recently made in the 1400 block of Baronne St. It’s the former All Relations Brewery, which closed during COVID. Later this summer, he and his partners will reopen the renovated brewery, which has been rechristened as Ecology Beer Creative and Tap Room.

Experts say most of the developments now coming to fruition began more than two years ago, when interest rates were still low and banks were eager to write loans on commercial real estate projects.

“Most of these deals were in the works before the interest rates went up, and folks were capitalizing on opportunities,” said real estate broker Durand Elzey, who is marketing the building under renovation at 1600 St. Charles Ave.

The right fit

Among the old timers along the strip is the iconic Promenade Fine Fabrics, now the only remaining couture fabric store in the Gulf South. Owner Herbert Halpern, who opened the store in its current location in 1968, has seen a lot of change in the neighborhood over the years. He is heartened by the recent uptick in activity.

In addition to his fabric shop at 1520 St. Charles, he owns the two adjacent two buildings, which have three storefronts among them. Two are leased—to a tailor and a home decor fabric store. One is vacant.

Halpern has fielded calls from several potential tenants but is holding out for the right fit – perhaps another tenant in the textile business.

“We’d like to make this a little textile hub on this little corner,” he said. "We've been here a long time and we're still hanging on, doing well actually. We're hopeful."