A plan for redeveloping large sections of the riverfront in New Orleans took a step closer to reality when it received a green light from the city on January 9. The New Orleans Building Corporation (NOBC), whose board includes mayor Ray Nagin and three members of the City Council, endorsed conceptual plans and authorized work to begin on the project’s first phase, perhaps within months. New details about project financing were also released.
The redevelopment zone runs for 4.5 miles along the east bank of the Mississippi River, from the Lower Garden district to the Bywater neighborhood. The first of three phases, which is also the largest, will encompass $163 million of improvements in two areas. One encompasses the area between Jackson Avenue and Henderson Street, the upriver boundary of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, where the design calls for a park to replace deteriorated wharves as well wetland gardens and performance spaces. The second area is downriver from St. Philip and Pauline Streets, bordering the French Quarter, to Holy Cross. The plan calls for the creation of an open-air pavilion at a wharf that must remain as well as the creation of a riverfront park at Bywater Point.
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