Sidney Torres IV is reviving a plan to develop a large tract of land he owns near Bayou St. John in Mid-City, joining forces with the owners of the blighted Lindy Boggs Medical Center on a “lifestyle center” of shops, leisure amenities, restaurants and apartments along Lafitte Greenway after years of false starts.
Torres, known for his IV Waste trash business as well as several high profile real estate projects, said in an interview that he’s met in recent weeks with Paul Flower and Bill Hoffman, the developers who control Lindy Boggs, and has drafted designs for a development on his adjacent six acres that together with their property could see investment of around $160 million over the next few years.
Hoffman said he and Flower have abandoned any hope of converting the Lindy Boggs property into an assisted living facility and are now discussing with Torres how they can develop the entire space in a way that would be “transformational” for the neighborhood.
The former Lindy Boggs Medical Center at Norman C. Francis Parkway and Bienville Street, which has been deteriorating for nearly a decade as a series of plans to revive it have failed. (Nov. 10, 2024.)
“We want it to be something that really brings value to the area and that people in the community as well as visitors to the city would utilize,” Hoffman said. “That’s why we’re talking with Sidney, because it doesn’t make sense in our minds for Sidney to do something with his site until we clean up ours.”
The discussions are still in the early stages with no formal agreement on how the two sides will work together. And plans for Lindy Boggs, formerly known as Mercy Hospital, and the surrounding areas have failed before. For two decades, a string of developers have tried and failed to resurrect the hulking, graffiti-covered shell of a building, even as projects like Lumina Condominiums, the American Can apartments and Torres’ Wrong Iron bar have flourished nearby.
Flower and Hoffman, who acquired the site in 2021 from the late Joe Jaeger, are the latest to face setbacks. But the developers say that better financing conditions, a planned extension of the Lafitte Greenway that runs next to the site, together with new apartment developments and other neighborhood attractions, suggest the time is right.
Looking to Malibu and 30A
The back-of-a-napkin sketches of the project Torres has done with his architect, Loretta Harmon, call for dozens of boutique retail outlets, restaurants and outdoor play areas. The Lafitte Market, as he is calling it, would also have water features with bridges over the greenway to would connect kayakers to Bayou St. John. Apartments may come later.
“I want to do an open air type of development there where the bayou is a very big feature,” said Torres, who referenced popular lifestyle centers in California and Florida as the inspiration for the design. “Think Malibu Country Mart or Alys Beach in Florida.”
The Malibu Country Mart, which is often cited as a paragon of the “new urbanist” design movement, was built in 1975 in the heart of Malibu and remains a cherished part of the community. It pioneered the concept of a gathering space that combined pricier, small-scale retail outlets with eateries, wellness and fitness options, as well as activities for families with kids in a walkable space.
The laid-back vibe for the well-to-do and its proximity to the beach has made it a regular for celebrities, which hasn’t hurt its popularity.
Alys Beach, a planned resort community on Highway 30A in Florida, similarly has a walkable town center that combines amenities like a community pool and bike trails with restaurants, boutique shopping and cafes.
Torres has been talking about developing the land formerly owned by Southern Railway since he bought it a decade ago. Half the original land he purchased was sold to Ohio-based Edwards Communities, which developed the Lumina, a $65 million, 385-unit condominium complex that includes a French Truck café facing the greenway.
But now Torres has new impetus for the project since he has joined forces with Flower and Hoffman, who have hired Gensler, the San Francisco-based design firm with a reputation for revitalizing urban spaces, to study what development options would be best for the combined acreage.
Sidney Torres IV’s “back of the napkin” plan for a new mixed development along Lafitte Greenway, at Bayou St. John, which would be done in tandem with a new effort by Paul Flower and Bill Hoffman to revitalize the blighted former Lindy Boggs Medical Center by owners .
Gensler’s projects include The Hub on Causeway in Boston, which opened in 2019 and revitalized the North Station and TD Garden area of the city into a mixed-use complex. That project included a large grocery store, residential units, a hotel, offices, restaurants and entertainment venues.
The area around the old medical center and Torres’ land — currently used to store IV Waste construction dumpsters — received an economic boost by the city’s development of the $9.1 million Lafitte Greenway project, which was completed in 2015.
Torres and his partners built the Wrong Iron bar next to the greenway on an adjacent tract of land he owns, and the venue has been bustling since it opened six years ago. Also on that land, Torres has rented converted warehouses to Bayou Bicycles and Crossfit NOLA outlets.
The Lafitte Greenway Partnership, the nonprofit converting the old railway line, is in the midst of a three-year plan to extend the 2.6-mile linear park by about another mile, from its current trailhead at North Alexander Street all the way up to Canal Boulevard and the streetcar hub around the historic cemeteries there.
“It is such a good neighborhood,” said Parke McEnery, a real estate broker who tried to sell the Lindy Boggs property for its owners last year but found no takers. “The timing last year was terrible, with interest rates high and construction costs through the roof.”Â
But interest rates have fallen and development costs have come down, while the property remains a prime urban site, McEnery said.
“It’s the assemblage of what Sidney has with the Mercy site that makes that acreage so attractive — it’s the largest infill land in New Orleans which is suitable for the kind of lifestyle center project they’re talking about,” McEnery said, noting that Torres requires no further zoning permits for his current plan.
“They’re locked and loaded,” McEnery said. “I think it will work.”
The hospital hurdle
The Lindy Boggs site remains the biggest obstacle to moving forward. The Louisiana Landmarks Society named the site to its 2024 list of “New Orleans’ Nine Most Endangered Sites.”
The complex includes buildings that date back to the mid-20th century and qualify for federal historic tax credits. However, Hoffman said it’s hard to see how a case could be made for preserving such an eyesore given how difficult it has proven to rehabilitate.
They estimate that demolition would cost about $3.5 million and are weighing total or partial teardown as part of the plan to advance the project.
In the meantime, they have promised the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization that they would pursue a plan to beef up security and have Arts New Orleans cover the building with murals while they search for investment partners.
Mark Mascar, vice president of the neighborhood association, said neighbors are happy that there is at least an interim mitigation plan that will make the building presentable in time for Super Bowl LIX in February.
“This is great news for Mid-City,” said Mascar, a photographer who lives blocks from the site. “Once art is there instead of tagging, it is less likely to be vandalized as there’s an unwritten rule that taggers don’t deface other artists’ work. Having art also could help attract possible investors and it will help heal bad memories from Hurricane Katrina.”
Hoffman, 71, said he is hopeful that they can have a broader development plan in place by the end of next year.Â
“As I told the neighborhood group, at this stage in my career and life, this is one of the things I want to get done before I call it quits,” he said. “It’s a high priority for Paul Flower and me and I do think it will be transformational.”