INDReporter

Stroke of genius: NO City Hall, courts moving to old Charity

by Leslie Turk

You gotta hand it to Mitch; it looks like this is really going to happen.

The Times-Picayune has just reported that Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration has been quietly moving forward with plans to relocate City Hall and Civil District Court in the old Charity Hospital on Tulane Avenue. The hospital has been vacant since it was shuttered in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The paper reported:

The city's Property Management Department on June 25 requested $300 million - an undefined combination of state capital outlay funds, FEMA hazard mitigation grants and city bonds - to pay for the move to 1610 Tulane Avenue.

"The Civic Center will improve efficiency in city government by locating all city departments within one space and creating a better work space for the civil servants and reduce annual operating costs for maintenance," the request states. "The proposed project will assist in revitalizing adjacent neighborhoods and be within a 3-5 minute radius from the current City Hall." ...

The idea of using Charity, an historic 1-million-square-foot facility built in the art deco style of the late 1930s, as a new civic center first surfaced in 2009 as then Mayor Ray Nagin was considering the Chevron Building in the Central Business District as a possible new seat for city government.

Charity has lain dormant, not much more than a massive shell, since it flooded when the levees failed after Katrina. The state would have to hand over the building to the city to set the relocation plan in motion.

Read the story here and check back with the T-P for updates.