The Orleans Parish School Board is restarting an effort to develop the shuttered Israel Augustine Middle School — an historic building on South Broad Street near Tulane Avenue that has been identified as one of New Orleans’ most endangered architectural sites — after an initial attempt failed to attract a sufficient proposal from a development group. 

The board last week responded by passing an action to make it less expensive for developers to lease and renovate the NOLA Public School district’s surplus properties in an effort to draw more interest in the building, which has been closed since Hurricane Katrina. 

The board, in collaboration with the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, has been working to redevelop the building into something that can generate revenue for the public school system. 

On Thursday (March 26), the board unanimously passed an action to increase funding flexibility for parties seeking to redevelop its school properties, by seeking to consider, “below market, nominal, community or public benefit or performance based lease terms,” when their projects align with goals laid out by the community and OPSB. Now, NORA is going back to developers and widening their solicitation timeline so they can submit more comprehensive development plans. 

“I think this really emphasizes what values are for our properties, and I would love to see community groups reach out to us to lease these properties,” board member Gabriela Biro said during the meeting. 

The resolution came after NORA, the public agency that revitalizes underused areas of the city, received just one redevelopment proposal after months of seeking community input and reaching out to potential developers. The agencies opened the property up for proposals in mid-November. Responses were due early last month. 

NORA’s executive director, Brenda Breaux, said that the proposal for a housing development was non-responsive to the group’s redevelopment priorities, which includes plans for community engagement and robust financing strategies. 

Breaux said there were some roadblocks for developers, including the building’s deteriorating physical condition and physical proximity to the Orleans Parish Criminal Court. 

The 75-day timeline that developers were given was also too short to present long-term financials, especially when developers would probably require operating subsidies and multiple funding sources, Breaux said. Redevelopment costs for the building could reach up to $50 million, according to NORA’s presentation during the school board’s property committee meeting last week.

Breaux said the short timeline made it so that one potential developer, the Orleans Public Defenders office, couldn’t submit a proposal in time. 

“They were feverishly trying to pull it together,” Breaux said to the board on Tuesday. “But to be able to do that in a 75-day period, considering all the other approvals that are required to get someone to buy on to a long term lease, and the fact that it requires a long-term commitment, not just to the property, but to the community.”

Initial priorities laid out by OPSB were also unclear, in how to balance neighborhood impact with financial feasibility. 

“I think when they outlined that they would really be engaged in considering the public benefit, and the long-term public benefit, relative to bringing that site or project to fruition, clearly exceeds any potential revenue they might receive today, I think that was the clarity that our staff was unable to provide without some guidance and input from the school board leadership,” Breaux said. 

The Israel Augustine building is one of eleven surplus properties owned by the school board, which still has costs associated with maintaining the buildings, despite not using them. While the board has sold other vacant properties that have gone on to be redeveloped, it will act as a long-term landlord for whichever business sets up shop in the Israel Augustine building. The board is also seeking redevelopment solicitations for the Valena C. Jones school building, but the proposals must include an education component thanks to a century-old condition in the land’s original donation. 

Breaux said NORA hopes to open another solicitation for prospective developers in the next month or two, and that the group expects to present its recommendations to the board this summer. 

“The longer we wait on bringing that site back into commerce, the larger the increase in construction [costs] and the concerns about the viability of the building,” Breaux said. “All of those things are competing interests that whomever responds and is ultimately selected will have to deal with. But our commitment is to work with them and the school board, however possible, to bring that project back to life.”

Read the full article on Veritenews.org.