|
SOUTHEAST SNAPSHOT, JULY 2006
New Orleans Retail Market
 |
Richard Stone,
Vice President, Director,
NAI/Latter & Blum
|
|
Generally speaking, the suburban retail market, which experienced far less of the catastrophic damage from Hurricane Katrina, has rebounded significantly. There was a lack of available suburban development land on the south shore prior to Katrina and that situation is no different today. About 80 percent of Orleans Parish (New Orleans proper) had some flooding, and about two-thirds of the retail space there remains out of commission. Recent development activity on the south shore has primarily involved home improvement centers. Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse has recently opened two locations on Jefferson Highway and Elysian Fields Avenue, with The Home Depot planning to open three new locations including a smaller version of their store in a former flooded Winn Dixie on Carrollton Avenue. The big box discounters and home improvement centers are doing a brisk business in stores in or near areas that were mostly unaffected by storm or flood damage, with same store sales in some instances up from 15 to 30 percent from last year.
The major malls on the east bank of Jefferson Parish are back in operation but not all the merchants are back. The 950,000-square-foot Oakwood Center on the west bank remains mostly closed for extensive repairs, with a partially open Sears now the only anchor to have yet opened. Many of the high-end shops of downtown's Canal Place Shopping Center have reopened, although Saks Fifth Avenue, which suffered extensive fire damage, will probably not open until November. Riverwalk reopened last November albeit with much fewer stores. Generally speaking, locally owned and operated shops, smaller retailers and restaurants have been more successful in getting back to commerce than have some of the national players.
The most significant projects that have been announced are all located in the suburban Northshore area of Covington. A $200 million, 1.1 million-square-foot lifestyle center, the Colonial Pinnacle Nord du Lac, has just received its initial Parish approvals and permits. Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, Hibbett Sporting Goods and Best Buy will anchor Phase II of the Stirling Covington Center, with completion scheduled for September. In neighboring Tangipahoa Parish, the 431,000-square-foot Hammond Square Mall in Hammond, Louisiana, was recently purchased by Palace Properties, which plans to commence a major redevelopment of that property.
Retail rates and occupancies will continue to be widely divergent on an area-by-area basis. There has been significant weakening in rates and occupancies in the former prime tourist locations along Canal Street and the French Quarter, as the tourist/convention trade has been significantly diminished.
The area’s metropolitan population is currently about 1 million residents, down from 1.3 million prior to Katrina, with most of the loss occurring in Orleans Parish. Retailing in the hardest hit areas of New Orleans will come back in direct proportion to the number of returning residents.
— Richard Stone is vice president and director of commercial sales and leasing for NAI/Latter & Blum in New Orleans.
©2006 France Publications, Inc. Duplication
or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization
from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints
of this article contact Barbara
Sherer at (630) 554-6054.
|
