List: New Orleans hotels opening on St. Charles Avenue | Business News

Two new hotel projects are now under construction on lower St. Charles Avenue after several years of planning, permitting and delays.

On the site of the former Trolley Stop Café in the 1900 block of St. Charles, work crews began driving piles in late May to support the foundation of what will be a six-story boutique hotel with 58 rooms and a ground-floor restaurant, according to developer Joe Mann.

Down the avenue in the 1300 block, contractors have already driven piles and are getting ready to pour concrete for a five-story pencil building that entrepreneur Curtis Lawrence plans to operate as a hybrid hotel.

In addition to the hotel projects, the long-stalled renovation of the former Jerusalem Temple building in the 1100 block next to the Pontchartrain Expressway has resumed. Mandeville-based Church of the King is converting the building into a worship center that is slated to open in 2026, a church spokesperson said.

Mann, meanwhile, in addition to his hotel project, is working on a deal to acquire another nearby parcel on St. Charles that he hopes to redevelop in the not-too-distant future.

“We are very bullish on St. Charles,” said Mann, who recently completed his renovation of the former Harry’s Ace Hardware building on Magazine Street. “It is one of the last remaining areas that is screaming for redevelopment and there is a need for it.”

Mann is still tight-lipped about some details of his project and isn’t ready yet to say whether the hotel will fly the flag of a well-known hotel chain or operate independently. But he said it will be a traditional, boutique hotel with a full-time staff and a rooftop pool and bar that will appeal to well-heeled travelers.

“We have 34,000 hotel rooms in the French Quarter and CBD and once you get out of those areas, there are very few options for luxury hotels,” he said. “There is definitely a market for the kind of project we are doing.”

He said he plans to divulge more details soon.

Lawrence’s project, on the other hand, will be a hybrid hotel, a collection of apartment-style suites under a single roof that functions like a short-term rental building but will have on-site staff around the clock, unless the city changes the law before he opens.

He said the $4 million project, wedged between the new Baptist Community Ministries building and the former Emeril’s Delmonico restaurant, should be completed and open this fall.

“I don’t think you can go wrong on St. Charles Avenue,” he said. “It is the city’s most prestigious street and it is the Mardi Gras parade route.”

Fits and starts

The new construction and renovation projects on St. Charles, one of the city’s grandest and best-known historic thoroughfares, are a welcome sign of activity in a real estate market that has been hammered for several years by higher interest rates, skyrocketing insurance rates and rising costs for construction labor and materials, real estate market watchers say.

They also signal hope for the mile-long stretch of St. Charles between Jackson Avenue and I10, a wonky mix of hotels, bars, casual eateries and disinvested storefronts.

In recent years, there have been efforts to redevelop the area with mixed results. BCM bought and renovated the old Whitney Bank building in the 1300 next to Lawrence’s hotel site for its new corporate headquarters.

Investors bought and renovated the former St. Charles Athletic Club building in the 1600 block, which is now home to a dentist’s office and a dermatology practice.

New restaurants, including Tito’s Ceviche and Pisco and Gaia Steakhouse opened in the neighborhood in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

But there have been misfires, too. A vacant corner lot at 1500 St. Charles that was under contract two years ago hasn’t sold. Neither has the former Emeril’s Delmonico restaurant, which was originally listed for sale in 2022 for $3.9 million and now has an asking price of $2.4 million.

“It’s been fits and starts,” said commercial broker Shaun Talbot, whose family-owned Talbot Realty has several sales and lease listings in the area. “There are good things going on and challenges, too.”

Challenges remain

One of the biggest challenges is the slow pace of permitting, a familiar complaint among developers.

“We worked with a developer who completed a project here and told us they could have done seven projects in Dallas in the amount of time it took to get it done here,” Talbot said.

Indeed, permitting issues are among the reason that Church of the King’s planned $15 million renovation of the century-old Jerusalem Temple, originally begun in 2018, have been slowed, according to documents filed with the city.

As recently as March, architects for the church were appealing a denial by the Historic Districts Landmarks Commission to allow for certain renovations to the temple’s rooftop, city records show.

The church’s pastor, Randy Craighead, was not available for comment Friday but a church spokesperson confirmed there had been permitting issues with the city. Still, the project is moving forward and the new worship center will hopefully open sometime next year, the spokesperson said.

Concerns about safety and quality of life issues like graffiti and encampments have also slowed redevelopment. Last fall, before finalizing permits for his hotel, Mann emailed City Council members, imploring them to do something about a group of people who had been camping on the site for several years.

“While our property is fenced, it continues to be littered with garbage, liquor bottles, hypodermic needles and other drug paraphernalia,” he wrote in the October 2024 email.

The property has since been cleaned up and construction is under way.

Talbot said if city leaders want to get serious about attracting new investment to key corridors like St. Charles, they need to continue to focus on such issues.

“I cannot tell you how many people come down here and get excited about wanting to do projects here,” he said. “Then, they encounter the reality of how challenging it can be.”