http://media.nola.com/business_impact/photo/9838918-small.jpg

The Trump Tower in New Orleans got final regulatory approval today and construction is supposed to start this summer. It will be 70 stories and 716 feet tall with a 126 foot spire. It will be the tallest building in Louisiana.

Story in Times-Picayune (http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2007_03_15.html#244423)

Trump Tower New Orleans (http://www.trumptowerneworleans.com/)

Great. Post about it in the right place please.

Great. Post about it in the right place please.

the guy is new so i re-opened this thread and moved it to appropriate spot.

Sorry, didn't realize it was in the wrong place.

^ no problem.

btw, does the 716' include the 126' spire?

I think 716' is the rooftop and the spire's top is 842'. The next tallest is New Orleans is One Shell Square, which is a building without a spire. The roof on One Shell Square is 697', so this building, with the spire, will be taller by a considerable amount.

When will construction start? What will the building have? Retail...condos...or mixed use? Why is Trump putting money where not many have been able to come back to? Will it survive?

The expected groundbreaking is this summer. The building will have 1.6 million square feet of floor area and it will be mostly filled with condos and a hotel. It is expected to cost $400 million.

As for the population issues, while reliable statistics on the population after Katrina are hard to obtain, one measure of recovery and people returning is the job data. Immediately after Katrina and Rita, Louisiana was estimated to be down 220,000 jobs. Most of the loss was in metro New Orleans. Before the storm, the area had 610,000 jobs. The newest data indicates that it had about 496,000 jobs in January 2007, or over 81% of its pre-storm total. While some of those jobs are being filled by people who are not residents, the number of jobs is growing. The most recent population numbers I have seen put the metro population at just a tad over 1 million, which seems to make sense given the number of jobs recorded.

Also, if you've been to New Orleans, you know that the suburbs to the west of the city in Jefferson, St. Charles, and St. John parishes are all pretty much back to normal. The suburbs on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain are also mostly back to normal. Before the storm, these areas combined represented over 600,000 people, probably closer to 700,000.

This tower as well as other planned developments will put housing on the market. Granted that this development is upper-end housing, but New Orleans is in need right now of housing of all types. There are more people who want to come back, but the real estate is market is very tight due to the vast number of homes destroyed.

I think the population estimates in the Times-Picayune were fairly conservative. I bet the metro area is back above 1.1m.

As for why its being built..... Anything completed before 2010 will qualify for significant tax credits. Although condos don't qualify, the active conduct of a business will. Thus, because a portion of the building will operate as a hotel, at least a portion of the project's costs will qualify for beneficial tax treatment.

I like the new design mch more than the old, but I still don't know what I think of the big bulk of white on top. I feel like it kills some of the slimness of the tower and makes it seem slightly shorter than it is.

Still, a great tower. I've very excited to see this one go up.

Sorry to barge in on your thread, but I like this tower. I didn't know New Orleans was getting a Trump Tower. Hopefully it doesn't get downsized like our Toronto Trump Tower!

Other than that, glad to hear that New Orleans is recovering!

This is the best Trump can come up with for New Orleans:ohno:

New Orleans is a gem and people would never let it disappear because of what happened with Katrina. The city will grow stronger than before, even if it takes 50 years. NO is the largest port in the U.S. when it comes to imports/exports and I do not see its importance diminishing. Investing in NO is not as dangerous as buying a condo in California (earthquakes are more frequent and more unpredictable), IMHO.

New orleans needs recovery....and it needs to be back to a stable city ....go ahead mr trump build it!!!!.

Here's a quote from JPKneworleans over on UrbanPlanet; posted on June 15th:

UPDATE:

I emailed the sales office and was surprised to receive a telephone call in response. I was told that Donald Trump has approved the advertising campaign and that a national push will start in approximately two weeks. At that time, the website will be completely revamped.

Groundbreaking is scheduled to take place in September, which is also when all contracts will be finalized.

Apparently, the number of units will be decreased. However, the unit totals are being decreased because a number of down payments are for multiple units that are being combined to offer larger floorplans. All told, the number of units will be about 620, but this will not impact the total square footage of the building.

Back on topic, please. We're not here to discuss the crime rate of New Orleans. This thread is a place to talk about this project and only this project. Continue this nonsense and your accounts will be suspended.

Whats the breakdown of this tower in terms of office space, number of hotel rooms and condos?

This is Great! What color will the outside glass be?

This is Great! What color will the outside glass be?

This will never get built. There is no enthusiam by investors, even the blog for this project is dead, and New Orleans doesn't have the business case for this type of development when the city is still far from a recovery. (I doubt N.O. will ever recover to what they once had from a tourist stand point and population base)

Jealousy's a b*tch. And you need to get over it.

Tower will be great for the city.

[QUOTE=Intheknow07;15253587]I believe the color will be Sky Blue. When you look at it, it will seem as if you are looking right through it.

How does this phenomenon occur?? Simple, it will NEVER be built.[/QUOT

stoppin hattin u stupid bitch if u dont have nuttin good to say about the tower then dont say nuttin at all and yes it will be built FYI so two words for u FUCK YOU.................

stoppin hattin u stupid bitch if u dont have nuttin good to say about the tower then dont say nuttin at all and yes it will be built FYI so two words for u FUCK YOU.................

hmmmm..... Do they have schools in New Orleans? Attendance must be optional :nuts:

[QUOTE=Intheknow07;15253587]I believe the color will be Sky Blue. When you look at it, it will seem as if you are looking right through it.

How does this phenomenon occur?? Simple, it will NEVER be built.[/QUOT

stoppin hattin u stupid bitch if u dont have nuttin good to say about the tower then dont say nuttin at all and yes it will be built FYI so two words for u FUCK YOU.................

I suppose you were not taught proper grammar and syntax in school.

Here is an update:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y161/alon504/trump2.jpg

Project has been plaqued with delays...mainly with permitting issues, but, in spite of the national turndown in home sales, this project looks certain to be coming to New Orleans....just lots of pre-work and planning. Reservations seem impressive. Hopefully, ground will be broken in the Summer, as the article states, but, I'm not holding my breath on that date. One thing for sure...this tower is coming to New Orleans.


Trump Tower sales center to open next month
by Christian Moises Associate Editor
ADVERTISEMENT
NEW ORLEANS - Plans continue to solidify for The Trump International Hotel and Tower in New Orleans as a 5,000-square-foot sales center is set to open around Feb. 10.

Cliff Mowe, co-developer with Davie Brannen at Pensacola, Fla.-based Poydras LLC, hopes to break ground on the project sometime this summer but that depends on final approvals and securing the necessary condominium documents.

“Hopefully we can finish the condo docs in the next 60-90 days, but they’ve taken a lot longer than expected because of the condotel aspect,” Mowe said. “It’s more complicated than your usual condo docs.”

The 72-story tower at 555 Poydras St. between Magazine and Camp streets will have 435 condo-hotel units and 290 residential condominiums.

The tower’s first two floors will be reserved for retail while floors three to 15 will provide 715 parking spaces. Floors 18 through 32 will be condotel units and floors 33 through 37 will be residential condos. Floors 58 through 63 will feature penthouse units accessible only through private elevators, Brannen said.

Hank Smith with Metairie-based Harry Baker Smith Architects II said the concrete-framed building will sit on 30-inch-wide steel pilings driven more than 200 feet into the ground.

Poydras will more than likely work with one of two banks for construction costs: Chicago-based Corus Bank or San Mateo, Calif.-based Capmark Financial Group.

Architects are Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Adache Architects and Harry Baker Smith Architects II. Philadelphia, Miss.-based Yates Construction will lead the build.

Brannen also said Poydras is working with First Bank and Trust under an agreement making it the project’s exclusive bank.

“The only pre-sales we’ve taken are from signage,” Mowe said, adding that only one or two of seven half-floor penthouses are still available. The only full-floor penthouse costs about $7 million and has nearly 10,000 square feet of living space. As of mid-December, there were 175 deposits on units, Mowe said.

“We’ve had some interest in it,” Mowe said, adding that a national marketing campaign, to include a DVD with Donald Trump, will be launched in the next three weeks.

“Once we get the sales center open, we’re gonna start marketing and I don’t think sales will be a problem,” Brannen said. “It’s a unique product and there’s a lot of international attention on New Orleans right now.”

New Orleans will join seven other Trump locations worldwide, including New York; Honolulu; Chicago; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Las Vegas; Toronto; and Panama. Work is under way on a 10th tower in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.•

This will never get built. There is no enthusiam by investors, even the blog for this project is dead, and New Orleans doesn't have the business case for this type of development when the city is still far from a recovery. (I doubt N.O. will ever recover to what they once had from a tourist stand point and population base)

I love being able to come back to this thread and make this guy eat crow. Tourism numbers have already achieved pre-Katrina numbers. Also, metro area population is some 88% of pre-Katrina numbers and continuing steadily. As for investor enthusiam, over 175 units have taken reservations with absolutely no marketing of the project. Only two of the penthouses remain for purchase. I consider your ability to predict the economic future of New Orleans to be... well, off the mark, to put it lightly.

I love New Orleans, great tower!

summer groundbreaking, eh? This is like a cat trying to chase a mouse, but never gets it. Seriously, this is like the 6th delay. What a joke. Sorry, but I think I have a case to be cynical here, since we've seen NOTHING go up. Tracage...Vantage Tower... that 25ish story tower that was supposed to go on O'Keefe? and Poydras...nothing.

summer groundbreaking, eh? This is like a cat trying to chase a mouse, but never gets it. Seriously, this is like the 6th delay. What a joke. Sorry, but I think I have a case to be cynical here, since we've seen NOTHING go up. Tracage...Vantage Tower... that 25ish story tower that was supposed to go on O'Keefe? and Poydras...nothing.

Delays... it is the one thing that most projects of this scale have in common. As for Tracage, a pile driver is on site. Is this the start of construction? I don't know. As far as the project at Poydras and O'Keefe, I know personally the family that is a 1/2 partner in the project. The project is still in the design phase. However, there are no plans to scrap it. It will happen, according to them.

nola.com (http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2011/07/plans_for_building_trump_tower.html)


Plans for building Trump Tower in New Orleans are officially dead

Published: Thursday, July 28, 2011

The Trump International Hotel & Tower, the excessively hyped 70-story, $400-million condominium project announced the day before Hurricane Katrina turned toward New Orleans, is officially dead.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e173/fla_tiger/NO-CBD1/trumpinternationaltower7uf.jpg
An artist's rendering of the proposed Trump Tower. The site where the skyscraper was to be built was sold last week at auction to a company that operates a parking lot there.

The Poydras Street parcel where the Trump Tower was to be located was sold at a sheriff's foreclosure auction last Thursday to the operator of the surface parking lot at the site.

While there have been no signs of motion for several years on the project that would have created the tallest building in the city, and a mural of the project painted on a brick building abutting the site has long since been removed, the Florida developers who worked with New York real estate magnate Donald Trump on the project remained silent about its fate, even as other swanky high-rise condo projects fell apart.

Stephen Dwyer, the local attorney for developer Poydras LLC, said that twin hurdles of the storm and the financial crisis were just too great to overcome. "The economy just did not justify going forward," Dwyer said. "The developer still hopes to bring the project online at some point. He has not given up on building a project in New Orleans."

Developers David Brannen and Cliff Mowe did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Jim Huger, the chief executive of Premium Parking Service LLC, a fast-growing parking company that launched shortly before Katrina, outbid the lender at the auction and bought the two parcels of land where he currently operates a parking lot for $5.44 million.

Huger, who bought the property along Poydras between Magazine and Camp streets through the entity Orcutt LLC, said he'll hold the land until new opportunities arise. "Like any long-term buyer, we're interested in any development opportunities. When the city is ready for something, we'll be there," he said.

Now that he owns the property, Huger plans to repave the lot and improve the site. "We haven't been able to invest in it up until this point," he said.

http://blog.nola.com/tpmoney/2009/02/TRUMP021809.jpg

Premium Parking operates 35 parking locations in New Orleans and has just expanded to Houston. The company has 100 employees.

Jim Garner, an attorney for Fred Levin, a Pensacola lawyer who previously owned the site and provided financing for the developers,said that Levin foreclosed on Poydras LLC in the spring after the company stopped making payments on its lease-purchase agreement for the site.

Garner said Levin bid on the project to make sure that he was made whole on the money he lent. Garner said that the property is worth more than what Huger paid for it.

The failure of the Trump Tower project also marks the end of spate of new-construction luxury condominium projects that were announced around the time of the storm when the national real estate market was hot and money was flowing.

Vantage Tower, a 25-story condominium project announced in January 2006 at Girod Street and O'Keefe Avenue downtown, was cancelled in February 2007 as rising construction costs made units too expensive for buyers.

The 24-story Tracage proposed in February 2006 at 1100 Annunciation Street in the Warehouse District was put on hold in April 2009 because of the economy. Although a banner remained in place for ages at the site, it was sold at a tax sale last November for $19,023.75 to a company in Minnesota called Lakeview Holding LLC, according to conveyance records.

But even as these projects crumbled, the Trump Tower developers insisted they were moving forward, and opened a sales office in the neighboring Pan American Life Center in January 2008 as the nation was in recession.

In May, the New York Times reported that real estate tycoon and television personality Donald Trump essentially rented his name to developers to make condo projects more valuable, even though he had little to do with them.

The Times-Picayune archiveThe Poydras Street site between Camp and Magazine streets, once slated to become a Donald Trump-branded highrise, was sold at foreclosure auction last week.

Kurt Weigle, president and chief executive of the Downtown Development District, said it's no surprise that Trump Tower and the other luxury condominium projects ran into trouble. The national finance market is tough, many people are more interested in renting rather than buying right now, and while downtown New Orleans is moving in a great direction, new construction is expensive and the per-square foot sales prices are still too low to make the numbers work.

Weigle is unconcerned by the failure of Trump Tower. What's more important, he said, is the redevelopment of many smaller buildings downtown into apartments that has allowed the residential population downtown to double over the past decade.

People in New Orleans are looking for apartments rather than condos, Weigle said, and that's well-matched to the type of financing tools that are available to developers. The easiest way to finance a project right now is through state and federal tax historic credits, which lend themselves to apartment construction, because the federal credits prevent developers from selling the units for five years.

With some 5,100 people living downtown and demand for the new apartment units strong, Weigle said downtown sales prices will eventually rise, which will make new construction condominium projects feasible.

"We don't despair because this one project isn't moving forward," Weigle said. "What we continue to herald are all the smaller projects that are adding up to big number gains in residents downtown."

----

You're breaking hearts all over the south DP.

Cruel, cruel, cruel ;)

Bad news left and right. :cry:

Yeah two big cancellations but these were doubtful at best for years. Now is the time to clear away the old clutter and await the cool things that will be built...as opposed to frothy, unsustainable pipe dreams! ;)

nola.com (http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2011/07/plans_for_building_trump_tower.html)

....we'll take it. :)