A tale of two City Hall proposals
24th May 2021 · 0 Comments
By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Columnist
The contrast on how Kenner Mayor Ben Zahn and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell have handled their respective proposals to convert large vacant properties into each municipality’s new City Hall – despite active opposition—speaks volumes about each leader’s patience and political perspicacity.
Put simply, the former has played it shrewd; the latter has not. Both began with a controversial – though laudable – notion to replace crumbling City Hall complexes by repurposing empty edifices, the former Macy’s complex at Esplanade Mall in Kenner and the Katrina-devastated Municipal Auditorium in New Orleans.
Both of these facilities need massive reinvestment, or they shall blight their city’s skylines for years. Simply tearing each down creates a hole too large to fill easily in their respective property footprints. Building new city halls in both makes use of the otherwise relatively unconvertible massive buildings, and creates a public purpose for the large open spaces around them— for public demonstration and petition of leaders.
And in both Kenner and New Orleans there has been massive opposition to the notion – for different reasons.
Last Tuesday night (May 18, 2021), at a city-sponsored public meeting at Homer Plessy Community School, the Cantrell administration sought to get public comment on its April 2021 Request for Proposals to convert the one-time concert hall. The reaction was intense.
“We don’t want City Hall in Armstrong Park,” Amy Stelly, an urban designer who lives in the adjoining Treme neighborhood, put said to WGNO TV. All of the City Hall proposals drew her ire. One idea in the RFQ would remove the neighborhood’s fire station. Another calls for a parking structure next to a playground, and a third proposes attaching a nine-story tower to the original auditorium footprint, flanked by a 2,600-car garage. “We feel that the placement of a government center in a neighborhood is inappropriate,” Stelly said. “If you can imagine this neighborhood with an additional 2,600 cars, we’re doomed.”
Housing all City Hall employees at Armstrong Park would require a building 50 percent larger than the current Municipal Auditorium, mandating the construction of an adjoining tower and parking lot. In fairness to LaToya Cantrell, though, the New Orleans Mayor’s favored proposal would have most city employees telecommute. The new City Hall would not need quite so much office space. Consequently, the reconstruction footprint would be far smaller and cheaper than most neighbors fear. Still, the new City Hall relocation into the Municipal Auditorium and its surroundings would cost over $100 million. Cantrell‘s challenge is that $36 million in FEMA reconstruction funds from Hurricane Katrina for the Auditorium are about to expire. Those federal funds would pay a large portion of the price tag of a new City Hall, as long as it sits inside the existing superstructure of the Municipal Auditorium. That’s why the mayor presses forward with the project in an election year, incurring the wrath of neighborhood activists and cultural enthusiasts — the latter of who cite the need for the property’s restoration as a musical performance venue.
A performance-purposed auditorium reconstruction would also cost a lot more than $36 million, the Mayor has noted, and with part of the building’s roof blown off in the recent storms, time is ticking before the Municipal Auditorium falls apart into a blighted wreck — even worse than currently encountered. A decision must be made soon, Cantrell maintains.
In contrast, Mayor Ben Zahn of Kenner floated the idea over two years ago to re-purpose the structurally-sound but vacant end of the mall property with government offices that would be paid for with the hundreds of thousands of dollars per year that Kenner shells out for commercial office space because its current City Hall is too small, and through the redevelopment effort, provide foot traffic to keep the other remaining stores in Esplanade Mall alive.
Concerns rose over the price tag to purchase the former Macy’s building, as well as the negative optics of moving City Hall from predominantly African-American South Kenner up Williams Blvd. onto the edge of majority Caucasian Château Estates. Rather than confront his opponents head-on, Zahn has seemingly attempted to give Kenner citizens the time to come around to his idea.
He moved part of the Kenner Recreation Department into the former Old Navy location in the mall. When the mall fell behind on its parish and city property taxes, Kenner and Jefferson Parish both demanded that the $1 million in unpaid millages dating to a previous owner be paid.
Zahn worked with the mall’s owners Kohan Retail Investment Group to put the Macy’s property up for sale this past March for $5.5 million. Less noticed was that state law gives mall’s owner just twelve months to sell the property, or else the Macy’s plot can be seized for back taxes. At worst, Kenner stands to get $250,000 in unpaid millages, if a buyer can be found. At best, Zahn can work out an ownership deal with his former colleagues in parish government to obtain the Macy’s facility at a fraction of its market value — and build his new City Hall within.
On June 22, Zahn will host a community meeting for the redevelopment of Rivertown and Esplanade Mall. Using social media and postcards (that have appeared on countertops throughout the City of Kenner), the administration directs interested citizens to go to a particular page on the city‘s website. The purpose is to take a public survey of the best use of the government properties.
Notice how the section on Esplanade Mall is written, “Potential: The Esplanade Mall was once ‘the place to shop’ in Kenner, but in recent years, the level of activity has declined, making this mall and site underutilized.
…Malls across the country are failing because we have built too much retail space, e-commerce is rapidly becoming more popular, and many municipalities are finding new ways to use these sites, including: 1.) preserving the mall structure but filling the anchor buildings with other uses, like government offices, call centers, or community colleges; 2.) retaining part of the mall structure but demolishing some of it in order to add different types of development; and / or 3.) demolishing the entire mall property and starting from scratch.”
Imagine, if two years ago, when she first began to float the notion, Mayor Cantrell had said that she would entertain private sector proposals to restore the Municipal Auditorium in some capacity. Her Administration then might have promoted online surveys on how to do it, eliciting public engagement. This survey could have included an option of using the auditorium space “for government offices.” The webpage might have also observed that Armstrong Park and the surrounding historic properties could “limit” some of the commercial options. In other words, a well-written poll could have subtly pushed the Mayor’s favored result of a new City Hall.
Instead of mass contention in that meeting in the Treme last Tuesday night, the Cantrell Administration might have been able to release the Mayor’s favored result. If a government complex option had won the online vote, the New Orleans Mayor would simply be responding to “will of the people.”
This article originally published in the May 24, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
