The Muses
The Muses, a mixed-income project
in New Orleans’ Central City, has not only contributed 103 affordable and 160
market-rate units to the housing stock, but it also has spurred development activity
throughout the neighborhood, which suffered from disinvestment before and after
Katrina.
“The Muses kicked off all the development work. It has caused tremendous spillover investment,” says Kathy Laborde, president of Gulf Coast Housing Partnership (GCHP), the developer and owner behind the project. “The result has been a lot more private investment in both residential and commercial areas in the surrounding neighborhood.”
GCHP partnered with Louisville, Ky.–based LDG Development and local Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative to build the $60 million project, which was completed in 2010, on more than four acres of vacant land.
The project’s success led GCHP to do a second project deeper in the Central City neighborhood. The King Rampart Apartments, which is adjoined to the mixed-use Harrell Building that houses the offices of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, includes 70 units of affordable rental housing for households 55 and older.
“Those developments, I believe, gave the market confidence that this was a good neighborhood in which to invest,” says Laborde. “And that is the point of what we do. It’s to help the folks in the neighborhood and to demonstrate to the folks not in the neighborhood why we should invest here.”
GCHP, which launched in January 2006 to address rebuilding efforts after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, has done additional neighborhood redevelopment, including a performing arts center, office buildings, and condos. It is currently working on a renovation of a homeless shelter in the neighborhood.