Plaza Tower to Become M-U Community; Stirling to Break Ground in St. Tammany

By Amalia Otet, Associate Editor

The long-vacant Plaza Tower, third-tallest building in both New Orleans and the state of Louisiana, recently sold for $650,000 to a local commercial real estate manager at a private auction. The sale was conducted by a joint venture of Corporate Realty and DJM Realty.

The new owner, Bryan Burns, senior vice president of Transwestern, announced plans to restore the New Orleans landmark building and turn it into a mixed-use development that will include a mix of condominiums, offices and shops, according to a Times-Picayune story.

Built in the 1960s, the 45-story skyscraper located at 1001 Howard Ave. in the Central Business District is currently zoned for retail, office and residential use.

In other development news, Stirling Properties plans to break ground next spring on the first phase of a six-building office park in St. Tammany Parish; if it comes to fruition, the project could increase the amount of office space in the western part of the parish by about 40 percent, as reported by the Times-Picayune.

The buildings, which will provide 600,000 square feet of premier office space, will be part of River Chase, a master-planned, mixed-use development in western St. Tammany Parish. When complete, the development will consist of more than 1  million square feet of office space, 1 million square feet of retail space, 240 apartments, 250 condos, two hotels, numerous restaurants and other retail uses, according to company statements.

All six buildings at River Chase could be constructed in the next five to seven years, if office space demand follows the same ascending trend.

“We used to live in the commuter world, where people wanted to live in the suburbs and work in the Central Business Distinct.” Townsend Underhill, Stirling’s vice president for development, told the Times Picayune. “Now people want to live and work nearby.”

Photo credits to Infrogmation of New Orleans, via wikipedia.org