Nearly 200 people gathered inside the cavernous Circle Food Store in the 7th Ward Monday morning as Mayor Mitch Landrieu and owner Dwayne Boudreaux celebrated the project's long-awaited groundbreaking and an expected August re-opening. Landrieu touted the cooperation between the city, state and federal governments to pull together the needed $8 million in financing to kick-start the grocery's redevelopment....
Nearly 200 people gathered inside the cavernous Circle Food Store in the 7th Ward Monday morning as Mayor Mitch Landrieu and owner Dwayne Boudreaux celebrated the project's long-awaited groundbreaking and an expected August re-opening. Landrieu touted the cooperation between the city, state and federal governments to pull together the needed $8 million in financing to kick-start the grocery's redevelopment.
"As Washington D.C. tries to find its way out of dysfunction it can look to the city and people of New Orleans who have found a way to work together on common ground to make sure we rebuild the most important pieces of our lives," Landrieu said.
The financing includes federal new market tax credits, federal and state historic tax credits, funds from the state Office of Community Development, $1 million from the city's Fresh Food Retailer Initiative and $100,000 from the city's Economic Development Fund, for a total of $8 million.
Construction on the 22,000 square-foot grocery store at the corner of St. Bernard and North Claiborne avenues that has sat empty for seven years after suffering extensive damage during Hurricane Katrina is expected to begin next week and be completed by the end of the summer.
The McDonnel Group, the firm behind the renovation of the Joy Theater, is signed on to be the general contractor with architectural plans drawn up by John Williams.
A statement from Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration announced a major funding initiative on Aug. 2, 2012 to help the iconic 7th Ward Circle Food Store, shuttered since Hurricane Katrina, to reopen, hopefully by the end of summer.
Councilowman Kristin Gisleson Palmer vowed to replicate the success they had pooling together resources to fund the renovation of the Circle Food Store in other parts of the city.
"In my district alone we do not have grocery stores on General Meyer (Avenue) on the West Bank since the storm, on St. Claude, Claiborne, Broad; that's inexcusable," she said. "I have a lot of people in my district and we are going to make sure they all have access to fresh food."
Landrieu said the renovation of the Circle Food Store is just one of many significant projects completed or underway that will revitalize the downtown area including the University Medical Center, Armstrong Park, the redevelopment of the Iberville Housing Development, the Lafitte Greenway, the Saenger Theater, and the Municipal Auditorium.
"The things working in New Orleans today are working because of partnerships between the federal, state and local governments, between the government and the private sector, and the involvement of the faith-based community and not-for-profits," Landrieu said. "That's the model that is rebuilding this great American city faster than any American city is being rebuilt right now."