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Archives for July 2011

Downtown New Orleans’ Joy Theatre to be restored

July 16, 2011 by Crescent Growth Capital, LLC

The Times-Picayune, July 15, 2011

The Joy Theatre, one of four historic theaters in downtown New Orleans, will reopen as a live music and entertainment venue early next year after a $5 million renovation by NOLA Theatre District LLC, the development company announced Friday.

NOLA Theatre District purchased the Canal Street theater, closed since 2003, from ESE Enterprises, a family trust with more than a dozen members, for $1.5 million after negotiating for more than two years, said Neal Hixon, a developer and partner in the development company.

“We’ve spent a long time working on this project,” said Hixon, who was a lead developer in the effort to transform the Arabella Bus Barn on Magazine Street into a Whole Foods Market. “We think it’s going to be a great addition to Canal Street.”

The Joy Theatre closed more than eight years ago, finally succumbing to the competition from megaplexes with stadium-style seating and a dozen or more screens.

When it reopens next year, it will no longer be competing with those theaters, Hixon said. The Joy will be reborn as a live music venue. The theater also will host comedy tours and be available for private functions and corporate events, Hixon said.

Current renovation plans call for keeping the theater’s exterior intact, restoring it to the way it looked on opening day in 1947, Hixon said. But the inside of the theater will be completely remodeled.

“It’s a complete gut and redo. It’s been neglected,” Hixon said. “We’re going to take it down to its bare walls.”

NOLA Theatre District LLC, a team comprising developers, Hixon and Joe Jaeger, and business owners, Allan McDonnel and Todd Trosclair, plan to use a variety of tax incentives, including state and federal historic tax credits and the Louisiana Live Performance tax credit, to complete the renovation.

McDonnel’s company, The McDonnel Group, will act as general contractor on the project. AllStar Electric, which Trosclair owns, will oversee electrical repairs. Jaeger’s The MCC Group will oversee the design and installation of the mechanical systems.

The Joy Theatre opened in 1947 at the corner of Elk Place and Canal Street and was hailed then as “New Orleans’ newest and most modern film temple.” The 1,250-seat, three-screen theater at one time contained a soundproof, glass-enclosed “crying room” for parents with babies. The theater showed first-run movies every decade since it opened, culminating with “Drumline” in 2003.

The redevelopment of the Joy will continue a recent spate of improvements to that section of Canal Street, which has spent years in decline, said Kurt Weigle, president and chief executive officer of the Downtown Development District. Weigle pointed to the 1201 Canal condominiums, directly across the street from the Joy, the recently opened New Orleans BioInnovation Center, about two blocks away and the in-repair Saenger Theatre, positioned diagonally from the Joy, as signs of improvement.

“This is part of a clear trend of revitalization,” Weigle said.

The purchase of the Joy, along with construction at the Saenger, also means two of the four historic theaters in downtown New Orleans are on the road to restoration. Efforts to renovate and reopen the other two, the Orpheum Theater and the Loews State Palace Theater, have stalled.

“We don’t expect that all four of the historic theaters along Canal Street will be brought back just as they were in their heyday,” Weigle said. “But the important thing is that they will be brought back in a way that’s going to contribute to Canal Street.”

Weigle said the Downtown Development District is working to have all four theaters reopen, each with a distinct and different purpose so they don’t cannibalize one another.

Filed Under: News Articles Tagged With: Adaptive Re-use, Cultural Economy, Federal Historic Tax Credits, Historic Preservation, Historic Rehabilitation, New Markets Tax Credits, New Orleans, Post-Katrina Recovery, Public-Private Partnerships

Jindal signs four-year extension of Louisiana Historic Tax Credit program

July 7, 2011 by Crescent Growth Capital, LLC

The Times-Picayune, July 7, 2011

Standing in the art deco entryway of the iconic Saenger Theatre, Gov. Bobby Jindal on Thursday signed a pair of bills that extend tax credits for the restoration of certain historic structures, including the Canal Street performance venue.

“These historic tax credits will help us to revitalize and save this heritage of historic buildings for our children and the future,” said Jindal, who was flanked by New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, state lawmakers and members of the New Orleans City Council.

Completing a massive reconstruction of the Saenger, which opened in 1927 as a vaudeville playhouse before morphing into New Orleans’ preeminent movie palace, hinged largely on the authorization of Senate Bill 63 by Sen. Ed Murray, D-New Orleans.

“Had that piece of legislation not passed, this project probably would have shut down,” Landrieu said.

The measure extends through 2016 a program that provides income and franchise tax credits worth 25 percent of the cost of restoration projects in downtown development and “cultural products districts.”

Developers in March halted work on the $45.8 million Saenger project after investors expressed concern that the tax credit program, which had been slated to expire Dec. 31, would not be renewed.  Builders are counting on about $8 million in historic credits to restore the theater, which has been shuttered since it flooded after Hurricane Katrina.  City Hall has earmarked another $13 million in block grants for the job, with investors chipping in the balance.

In light of the uncertainty, private lenders requested that all transactions related to the project be halted until the tax credit issue was resolved.

Confident that Jindal and state lawmakers would support the extension, the city agency overseeing the renovation agreed in mid-March to advance the Saenger team $1.1 million to ensure the swift resumption of work.  Landrieu publicly backed the move by the board of the Canal Street Development Corp.

Developers anticipate closing on the entire financing package by October, with the theater expected to open in late 2012, mayoral spokesman Ryan Berni said.  Officials expect the advance payment from the development corporation to be repaid, he said.

Fifty-five projects worth an estimated $291 million — and carrying $73 million in associated tax credits — are pending under the tax credit program, state documents show.  Since it began in 2002, 124 projects have been awarded more than $135 million in tax credits.

Those projects have generated more than $650 million in investment statewide and created 11,000 construction jobs and 5,700 permanent jobs, Jindal said.

“Analysts tell us that for every $1 we invest in this program, we generate $3.22 in economic activity and revenue,” he said.

Jindal on Thursday also signed House Bill 348 by Rep. Walt Leger III, D-New Orleans, which extends to 2016 a similar tax credit program for owner-occupied residential properties.  The measure lowers from $20,000 to $10,000 the minimum qualifying rehabilitation cost and increases the credit rate to 25 percent for most projects and 50 percent to the restoration of blighted properties that date back at least a half-century.

Jindal cast the bill as a blight-fighting tool, and Brad Vogel of the local office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation called the residential tax credit “crucial” to continuing rebuilding efforts.

“As different neighborhoods pick up steam, it will help to make renovation a more viable option,” he said.

Filed Under: News Articles Tagged With: Adaptive Re-use, Cultural Economy, Historic Preservation, Historic Rehabilitation, Louisiana Cultural Districts, Post-Katrina Recovery, State Historic Tax Credits

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