A new coworking space opens on banks of Mississippi River in Uptown New Orleans

A year after unveiling plans for an outdoor-focused entertainment district with restaurants, coffee shops and a bar on the banks of the Mississippi River near Audubon Park, the developers behind the project are now marketing the site as an office and coworking space.

Developer Ben Jacobson said Monday that he and partner Casey Burka are still working on the broader project, called The Batture, on the site of the former industrial scrapyard.

But as they navigate a lengthy permitting process along with concerns by some neighbors about traffic and noise, Jacobson said it makes sense to lease two existing buildings on the 10-acre site to office tenants.

“This is not a pivot from our original plans,” Jacobson said. “This is kicking off The Batture in a low-scale way.”

The Rigs at the Batture, as the coworking space is called, is located in two buildings on the property that were once part of Gulf of Mexico oil platforms. The site’s former owner, Bisson Marine, had converted the structures into office space in the 1990s.

The buildings, accessible by a road over the levee at the end of Walnut Street, are configured into several small offices and a larger coworking space with individual desks.

There’s also a common area with a kitchen and a newly landscaped, one-acre riverfront lawn.

“We promised the community a neighborhood-scale development with plentiful green space, and hope this first step further builds trust with our neighbors and brings excitement of great things to come,” Jacobson said.

Making progess?

Jacobson and Burka have said The Batture, located near the Fly, would be transformational for a section of Uptown riverfront that has largely been inaccessible.

Their plans, unveiled last year, called for a retail corridor with eight buildings that would be used as restaurants, coffee shops and a bar.  A street, lined with parking on both sides, would span the length of the area and run parallel to Leake Avenue.

But The Batture’s nearest neighbors, residents of several high-rise condominium complexes directly across Leake Avenue, have raised concerns about traffic and density, and questioned whether the existing infrastructure is sufficient for such a development.

They also want assurances from Jacobson and Burka that they aren’t planning subsequent phases with a high-rise hotel or some other, larger attraction.

Last week, leaders of the River Triangle Association, a neighborhood group that organized last year in response to the project, met with Jacobson and his attorney, Mike Sherman, to again express their concerns, according to association president Rob Marier.

“We’d like a guarantee that the project they are planning now is the whole project and that there are no future phases, no increased density and a height restriction,” Marier said. “We’d like to support this if we can keep it at a certain level.”

Marier said the meeting went well and that the two sides are continuing to talk. 

Jacobson declined to discuss the meeting or plans for The Batture beyond the coworking space, which he said, “will introduce the location to the community in a way that fits seamlessly into the neighborhood.”

Marier said his organization doesn’t have a problem with using the existing office buildings as coworking space.

“I think it’s a good idea,” he said. “Something is going to go out there. As long as it’s the right scale, it’s great.”

Growing demand

The Rigs joins about a dozen other coworking spaces in the New Orleans office market.

Coworking spaces typically offer small offices or dedicated desks for lease on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. With the space comes access to common areas, kitchens, conference rooms and office amenities like printers and fax machines.

Since the pandemic, which sent office workers home for months or longer and normalized flexible and remote work habits, the demand for coworking spaces has continued to grow, according to Hugh Breckenridge, who manages The Shop at the CAC, a 40,000-square-foot coworking space that opened in the Contemporary Art Center in 2017.

“Our offices are in various states of full all the time,” said Breckenridge of the 73 private offices at The Shop. “There are 120 seats in the common area and nearly 90 members, so we do very well.”

Day passes at The Shop sell for $35, while monthly memberships are $335. Office rates range from $800 a month for a single desk to $2,500 a month for four desks.

The Rig will be slightly more expensive, according to its website. A single desk will lease for $400 a month and offices will start at $1,000 a month.

Jacobson said his space is already 40% occupied, though that includes the offices of his and Burka’s real estate firm, Ben and Burka, which moved to The Rig earlier this year.

Breckenridge says there is demand for more coworking space in the city and predicts The Rig will do well because of its proximity to the Mississippi River and the industrial chic vibe of an old oil platform.

“I am of the mind that the more availability there is, the better it is for everyone,” he said.