New Orleans stymied on high-rises

NEW ORLEANS - Lured by congressionally authorized tax credits and other financial incentives after Hurricane Katrina, a procession of developers announced plans to build high-rises.

But more than 20 months after the storm, most of the plans have fallen by the wayside. The slow pace of the recovery gets much of the blame. New Orleans still has no comprehensive rebuilding blueprint, and funding is falling far short of planners' expectations.

Adding to the tension for commercial investors: Construction and insurance costs have soared.

"There have been a lot of announcements, but you don't see a lot of cranes, do you?" said Michael Siegel, executive vice president of Corporate Realty Inc., a New Orleans-based brokerage. "I think we all underestimated how long this [the recovery] was going to take."

At least one big plan - a $400 million proposal by Donald Trump to construct the city's tallest building - is going ahead, although the only visible sign at the planned site of the Trump International Hotel & Tower is the tycoon's name painted on a brick-wall mural. Every weekday morning, cars fill the parking lot where the 70-story building is to be built.

Not to worry, said Trump's son, Donald Jr. The city's slow recovery, he said, has not derailed the plan to build more than 700 units of condominiums and hotel rooms in the city's central business district. A sales office is expected to open near the site in less than three months, he said.

But while the Trump proposal is making its way through the city approval process, most other projects have attracted more hype than hard hats. Many have stalled or fallen apart.

David da Cunha, president of the commercial investment division for the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors, said many developers were waiting for government leaders to devise a clear rebuilding plan before they invested. "I think that's what is slowing things down," he said.

Redevelopment proposals are making their way through the city approval process, and the city's recovery director, Ed Blakely, hopes the pace of reconstruction will pick up by fall. Blakely envisions a $1 billion program of mixed-use redevelopment, but his funding source - the federal government - has only $117 million available for the task.

Doubts about the strength of the city's flood-protection system also are weighing on developers' minds, city planning administrator Arlen Brunson said. When Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005, levees broke and flooded about 80 percent of New Orleans. The water extended well into the business district, and hurricane-force winds blew out windows in many high-rises.

The Army Corps of Engineers is pumping billions of dollars into flood-protection improvements. But the Corps itself acknowledges some levees are not up to federally mandated standards set before Katrina.

The Trumps, at least, have not been deterred. "This is going to be a big statement for the city and its recovery," Donald Trump Jr. said recently. "It's not charity, but we do think it's one of America's great cities and we want to be there to support it any way we can."

The Trump project is one of eight new luxury condo complexes, totaling more than 8,000 units, that have been approved by the city planning commission since Katrina. At least one of those projects, Vantage Tower, has fallen apart.

In January 2006, Trey Cefalu announced plans to build the 25-story condo complex in the central business district. Prospective buyers reserved 105 of 219 units at Vantage Tower, but about half of them backed out after the developers raised prices to offset a 30 percent increase in construction costs.

Cefalu said he decided to shelve Vantage Tower in February.

"We're taking a wait-and-see attitude to see where construction costs go," he said.

Other developers say they aren't giving up on the market. The first high-rise project to break ground could be Tracage [the French word for "loft"], a 24-story condo complex planned for the Warehouse District.

Louisiana wants thousands of state and local government workers to return $10 million in unemployment pay they received while still collecting regular pay after Hurricane Katrina.

A state audit found lax control by the state Department of Labor was the main reason 5,439 ineligible workers collected up to $258 a week, Legislative Auditor Steve Theriot said.

Administrative workers with the City of New Orleans received the most money, with 2,233 wrongfully collecting $4.3 million. There were 1,638 state workers, many with the state Department of Health and Hospitals, who got $2.7 million.

With residents spread nationwide, labor officials suspended the need for unemployment applicants to contact the department weekly to verify they were seeking jobs and to report any earnings.

SOURCE: Associated Press EndText