Crescent Growth Capital, LLC
Structuring project financing to incorporate tax credit equity.
New Orleans-based Ryan Gootee General Contractors received the Alliant Build America Award from the Associated General Contractors of America for their redevelopment of the former Myrtle Banks Elementary School building.
Follow this link to read the more about the award and Ryan Gootee’s work at Myrtle Banks.
On April 15, 2015, Myrtle Banks, New Orleans Military & Maritime Academy, Carver Theater, and the Tulane School of Social Work received the Louisiana Landmark Society’s Excellence in Historic Preservation award, which recognizes outstanding examples of restoration or rehabilitation of historic buildings.
In FY 2014, the National Park Service approved 1,156 projects and $5.98Bn in rehabilitation work, creating an estimated 77,762 jobs.
On Wednesday, a groundbreaking ceremony marked the beginning of the 12-month construction of the new NOCCA Forum.
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.
The Times-Picayune, June 6, 2011
A historic and dilapidated former Algiers school is getting new life with plans to convert the long vacant building into apartments for senior citizens and the disabled.
The former Belleville School, portions of which have been in disrepair for decades, is set to undergo a $13 million renovation to create 52 assisted-living apartments. Construction could be complete by February, said Sean Arrillaga, a vice president for St. Luke’s Living Center in Algiers, one of the partners in the renovation deal.
Most apartments will be about 550 square feet, which Arrillaga said is larger than the current market average.
The group closed on the school site at 813 Pelican Ave in May, and demolition of the interior has begun, he said. Arrillaga declined to identify the other investors in the project, but said the project will qualify for state and federal historic tax credits, along with new markets tax credits.
The group decided to renovate the Belleville School because of the surrounding neighborhood, Arrillaga said. He called Algiers Point a “quaint, historic neighborhood.”
Cecelia Hemelt, who will be the administrator of the 56,000-square-foot property, said the neighborhood is a good fit.
“We really liked the location and the community of Algiers Point,” she said.
Hemelt said the apartments will be geared toward residents 55 and older or high-functioning disabled people. There will be a director of nursing on duty during the day and several aides there around the clock. All rooms will have handrails and other amenities to provide easier access.
Belleville School’s current makeover as an assisted-living facility is just the latest twist in its saga, which includes several failed redevelopments in the past two decades. The school has been vacant since 1987, and through the years developers have envisioned it as condominiums, a hotel and spa, and, in 1989, apartments for senior citizens and the disabled. The main structure of the school — a three-story, red-brick building — was completed in 1898, and wooden annexes were built in 1907 and 1925.
Skip Gallagher, the president of the Algiers Point Association, said the group is excited to finally see some action occurring at the school site after years of watching the building deteriorate. He said an assisted-living facility is one of the best uses for the building, and he doubts it will be a large drain on parking in the surrounding neighborhood, which was a concern of some residents. Gallagher said it would have been far worse if the abandoned building continued to be a blight on the Point.
“For the most part, we’re encouraged by it,” said Gallagher, adding that it’s great to see a historic building salvaged instead of demolished by neglect. “The biggest concern we had was that it wouldn’t happen. That would be criminal.”