The Navy closed the Naval Support Activity on Sept. 15, 2011. The City of New Orleans still trying to acquire part of it, and Federal City hasn't seen large-scale construction.
Retired Marine Corps Col. Bill Davis raves over the speed at which the state charter high school he oversees is shaping up at the Federal City campus in Algiers. Just nine months ago, construction crews poured the slab for a new building at the New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy, which combines renovated century-old Navy buildings and new construction.
If the New Orleans region makes it through hurricane season without a debilitating storm, and Entergy finishes rebuilding the Federal City power grid in time, the academy's cadets will be sitting in new classrooms when they return from Christmas break, Davis said.
"We're ahead of schedule and under budget," said Davis, the academy's commandant. "We poured that concrete in April, and we're moving in by December. It's going good. We've been blessed."
Yet things aren't moving as quickly for the rest of Federal City, the mixed-use development that founders envisioned bringing 15,000 jobs to Algiers over 10 years. Two years after the Navy closed the Naval Support Activity in Algiers and Bywater, the Marine Corps installation and its quality-of-life amenities are bustling. But the redevelopment of the rest of the shuttered Navy base has moved much more slowly.
"Not all successes and progress that we've had are visible to the public's eye," said state Rep. Jeff Arnold, D-Algiers, who has been involved in the Federal City redevelopment. "There's no construction. But things we have done have put us in position to do that."
In Bywater, the Navy's 25-acre property at the foot of Poland Avenue has sat vacant for the past two years, occupied only by a caretaker staff that the Navy posted there while the city of New Orleans went through the federal process to acquire the land and buildings. The city said last year it had hoped to get the property by the end of 2012, and convert it to a "resilience center," a hub for disaster relief agencies.
But nine months later, the grassy parade field where Marines once held ceremonies and trained is overgrown, and the Navy plans to pull out the caretakers on Monday. Bill Garrett, a retired Navy captain who is involved with the base closure, referred questions to City Hall, which hopes to acquire title to the property this month.
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The Navy formally closed its New Orleans installation on Sept. 15, 2011, a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure round. While the Navy wanted to close it altogether, a federal commission in August 2005 let the state and city move forward with its plans to convert the Algiers portion of the base into Federal City.
The initial portion of the plan, which was to build the Marine Corps Support Facility New Orleans and the amenities the Navy required to support the Marines and their families who work there, has been completed because a $150 million contribution from the state. But aside from about a dozen tenants, including small businesses, the charter high school and the New Orleans Police Department's 4th District headquarters, Federal City so far has seen no large-scale development. It recently lost out to Kansas City, Mo., in competition for a Marine Corps information technology center.
In Bywater, the city, with guidance and money from a Defense Department agency, has gone through the process of trying to acquire the site for economic development purposes. That included setting up an advisory task force, showing the Navy it had a redevelopment plan and selecting a developer.
Although the last of the military commands and units moved out of the Bywater site two years ago, the city's process to acquire it actually began in 2006. In addition to the resilience center, other proposed uses have included facilities supporting the cruise ship industry, although the two Maritime Administration cargo ships, the Kennedy and the Knox, remain berthed at the Poland Avenue wharf.
Deputy Mayor Cedric Grant said last week that the city is on track to acquire the property by Monday, give or take several days. He said the city has had concurrent negotiations with the Navy to convey the property free of charge and with EMDRC Partners LLC, a joint venture the city selected a year ago to redevelop the site. Bill Ryan, a principal in the joint venture, referred questions to City Hall.
The city and EMDRC Partners signed another deal earlier this month, further clinching the relationship, they said. Grant said the parties are in "the final stages" of completing negotiations toward acquiring the property. According to City Hall's web page on the Navy base reuse plan, which was updated last week, the city plans to get the property on Friday.
"We are on track to acquire the property, for the purpose of developing the property as a resiliency center," Grant said. "That's the goal."
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Naval Support Activity site in Bywater, as photographed in May 2005 when the Navy announced it wanted to close the site. The City of New Orleans hopes to acquire it by Sept. 30, 2013. The Bywater site, often called the Port of Embarkation, was originally constructed by the Army during World War I as a quartermaster depot. The Navy acquired the site, also called the F. Edward Hebert Defense Complex, in 1966, and its namesake congressman played an instrumental role in filling it with Navy and Marine Corps commands whose staffs worked in offices created from the depot. The site has three large buildings, totaling about 1.5 million square feet, and a five-floor parking garage.
The Navy opened its Algiers base in 1901, equipping it with a dry dock and using it as a repair station in its early years. During World War II, Navy Armed Guard forces were trained there for duty aboard Merchant Marine vessels, and crews greeted their ships at the site. In its later years, it became an administrative base whose mission was to support its tenants. The Navy even operated a Mississippi River shuttle service to ferry people between Algiers and Bywater.
After the Navy announced in 2005 it wanted to close the base, it gave the Coast Guard a seven-acre parcel overlooking the river in Algiers. On it, the Coast Guard built a headquarters for its Sector New Orleans command, where about 300 people work. Although it technically is not part of the Federal City, the compound is next to the Marine Corps Support Facility, where about 1,200 Marines, sailors and civilians work daily.
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View full sizeCity Councilwoman Kristin Palmer, who chairs the Joint Development Committee created to oversee Federal City, said about 2,000 people work at the site, including the Coast Guard personnel. "I think that's an important number to consider," she said.
Separately, the Navy in May gave the Algiers Development District board 118 acres and 51 structures, including buildings the Navy constructed before 1910. The conveyance, authorized by Congress, was done as a means of encouraging investment at the site. Some of the buildings are boarded up, and some visibly are in need of maintenance.
Arnold, who is a member of the Joint Development Committee and the Algiers Development District board, acknowledges that Federal City has been stymied by disputes over who governs the redevelopment.
The New Orleans Federal Alliance, or NOFA, a nonprofit created in 2004 specifically to oversee Federal City's development, had been at odds with the Algiers Development District board in recent years for that control. And the alliance remains involved in litigation with the project's master development team, HRI-ECC, over whether the companies are owed money.
Pushed by the Business Council of New Orleans and others who worried the dispute would turn off potential investors, both sides agreed to a public-private partnership that now oversees Federal City, the Joint Development Committee. Arnold, who was involved with the governance disputes and has publicly criticized the alliance, said he's not happy with progress the committee is making.
"My frustration two years later comes from all of the angst that we've had with ADD and NOFA and HRI and the litigation," he said. "The JDC was supposed to be a way to get away from all of that. It hasn't happened."
Meanwhile, Delgado Community College, which runs a West Bank campus next to the Federal City, wants to buy the former Navy chapel and surrounding land fronting Gen. Meyer Drive and convert it to a student activity center, Arnold said. He said that deal has been slowed by existing lease agreements at Federal City.
Louisiana Economic Development is marketing Federal City, and Arnold said the state agency is courting prospects, which he would not name. LED's spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. The Joint Development Committee is planning to request proposals from grocery companies to open a store along Federal City's Gen. Meyer Drive side. Entergy is in the process of building a new power distribution grid at the site, replacing the master-meter system that serviced the Navy installation so that individual tenants can be metered.
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Federal City planners hope their new, permanent sign at the entrance to the Algiers campus, at Gen. Meyer and Shirley Drives, will be more inviting and lure potential businesses to locate at the former Navy base. The Joint Development Committee also has installed a new entry sign at Gen. Meyer and Shirley Drive. The Navy's water tower will be retained but used only as a Federal City marketing icon that likely will be emblazoned with the Marine Corps emblem as well. "We definitely want to honor our No. 1, the Marine Corps," Arnold said.
The YMCA has expansion plans that include a pool, and it is starting a softball league at Federal City, Arnold said.
"Those are all things that will start bringing citizens in the Federal City area and will help with the perception that Federal City isn't open to the public," Arnold said. "It is open to the public."