NEW ORLEANS — There have been more ups and downs with the old Six Flags Site in New Orleans East than the Mega-Zeph, one of the former amusement park’s signature rides.

Bayou Phoenix Founder Troy Henry says you will soon see cranes in the sky at the site which has been abandoned since Hurricane Katrina 19 years ago.

“You’ll see them in the air probably in the next 60 days, tearing down stuff because these are big old rides,” Henry said. “They take cranes to do it. Then we’ll have a master architect actually lay things out finally.”

Last October, Bayou Phoenix signed a 50-year lease with the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) which owns the land.

Henry says they are just wrapping up a facility condition assessment of the 227-acre site.

“That assessment helps us to determine the conditions of the grounds and pilings and infrastructure so that we can make a final placement on what venues can go where on the property."

After everything is demolished above the slab of the old park, development is set to begin.

According to Henry, the construction of the new E. Ross movie studio complex is expected to start in the first quarter of next year.

Once a youth sports operator is chosen, work will then begin on the new ball fields and indoor sports facilities.

“They’ll do a facility, we think will be about 12-16 fields, baseball, football, that kind of thing, soccer,” Henry said. “Then the indoor will have 9 basketball courts, 16 volleyball courts.”

Bayou Phoenix is still lining up the anchor hotels and water park operators which are expected to finance their piece of the project.

“The hoteliers that we’re talking about, we believe are probably best suited to be adjacent to the water park, so they can literally walk indoors from the hotel to the water park,” Henry said.

The project would also include an 8.5-acre clear water lake for swimming, retail outlets, and other amenities.

While there is still much work to do, Henry now hopes to have the first phase of the park completed and opened in 2027.