'Enough is enough': New Orleans residents fed up with long-stalled development projects

In August, the century-old Market Street Power Plant, with its Dickensian smokestacks looming over a decaying hulk of brick and metal, was the site of the tragic death of teenager Anthony Clawson, who fell 50 feet while exploring the building.

Earlier in the summer, the abandoned Navy base at the intersection of Dauphine Street and Poland Avenue in the Bywater made headlines when it became a locus of violent crime. New Orleans police swept the 25-acre site in July to relocate dozens of squatters after a series of shootings at the site left one person dead.

Across town, the Plaza Tower has sat unused and deteriorating since the last office tenant left 20 years ago. The city was reminded of its hazards last year when high winds blew debris off its upper levels, hitting a passing cyclist. And in Mid-City, the old Mercy Hospital on Bienville Street has been a favorite target for vandals since it was left uninhabited following Hurricane Katrina.

On a recent Friday night, trespassers wandered its roof wearing what appeared to be headlamps.

With crime and other quality-of-life concerns prompting some of the highest levels of resident disapproval of New Orleans and its leaders in years, blight is under a renewed spotlight. In public meetings, residents regularly ask what's to be done about properties that have gone to seed, including the city's notable major eyesores.

Joe Brown, a Neighbors First For Bywater board member, said after the police-led clear out of the Naval complex that action was long overdue.

"Enough is enough,” Brown said. “If the people who live (in Bywater) have to deal with it, I can tell you it won’t be pretty.”

'You can't police it'

Joe Jaeger, one of the city's prominent developers and hotel owners, has at one time or another owned the power plant, the naval base, the Plaza Tower and the hospital.

He argues that there's not much private developers can do to keep trespassers out and secure the sites. He also said that he and other developers take on these projects after they've already been deteriorating for years.

"We'll go and put gates and chains and whatever," Jaeger said. "You can't call the police; they have more important things to do. Between professional strippers who strip the building and the vagrants that are doing whatever, and the thrill seekers, you can't police it. We just do the best we can."

Meanwhile, he and other developers argue that bringing these buildings back hinges on securing financing, which usually means lining up government subsidies to make the deals work.

"It's difficult in New Orleans because you almost always need a subsidy because of all of the issues we have here," said Paul Flower, who bought the Mercy Hospital site from Jaeger last year, referring to the city's high crime rates, declining population and the costs of insurance.

Flower's company, Woodward Design+Build, has faced delays in securing financing from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for a project to convert the former Mercy Hospital into a continuing care facility.

"Almost every developer is looking for some sort of federal assistance, a federal program, especially for a project like this," Flower said.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell last month acknowledged that the Naval complex project was contingent on financing from HUD, which she said her administration is pushing for.

"HUD is a large component that's tied to the (Naval) site," she said. "Those projects are so large and you need a multifaceted approach to attack them and bring them back into commerce."

'It's starting to deteriorate'

Still, some residents say the developers are shirking their responsibility to take care of their properties — in some cases for many years — while deals come together. 

Brobson Lutz has lived for decades on Dumaine Street in the French Quarter, across from what used to be Marti's Restaurant. The shuttered restaurant and adjacent properties have been owned by Jaeger's company for years and nothing has been done to fix them up, Lutz complained.

"This was always a vibrant part of the street," he said. "But there's been nothing here for three or four years. It's just been completely empty and it's starting to deteriorate."

Val Walker, mother of 18-year-old Anthony Clawson, went to see the Market Street Power Plant property three days after her son fell to his death there. 

"This gate right here was wide open and this door was wide open and the another door down here was wide open," she said, pointing to easy points of access to the site. "So, it was very easy for them to enter the property."

She said the power plant, like other such sites in the city, is well known among young people for its "urban exploration" potential and young thrill seekers posted videos of their exploits on YouTube. The dangers were well known and the owners and city officials should have been more vigilant, she said.

"They have the authority, but they won't take the responsibility," Walker said.

Added security

John Lawson, a spokesman for Mayor LaToya Cantrell, said the new owners of the power plant, led by local developers Louis Lauricella and Brian Gibbs, have beefed up security precautions.

"The current owners have been in constant communication with the city regarding trespassing issues," Lawson said via email. "They have taken substantial steps to clear and secure the site with an electronic perimeter fence and VPS gate system over every lower-level opening on the structure."

Peter Aamodt, a spokesman for the power plant owners, said they're trying to speed along development, which is the surest way to keep it secure. 

"Their very motivation in buying the Market Street Power Plant was to renovate and transform a historic building in our city into an entertainment complex that our entire community can be proud of," said Aamodt in a prepared statement.

Fines or more help?

One thing the developers and city authorities agree on is that the best outcome is speeding along the development of these projects.

Reed Wiley, a commercial real estate broker at Latter & Blum, said that some other major cities have taken a more proactive "carrot and stick" approach.

New York City's New Construction Financing program, for instance, offers a range of tax breaks but also imposes stiff fines for projects that turn into blight, he said.

Flower, who completed the conversion of the World Trade Center into a Four Seasons Hotel and Residences last summer after years of delays, argued that fines alone won't solve New Orleans' blighted property issue and could make it worse by scaring off the few who might eventually be able to get the projects done.

"if I knew I had, along with all the other costs that we're having on (Mercy Hospital), to have to be paying fines along the way, then I wouldn't have gotten involved in it," he said.