Wampold nears completion of luxury apartment project in NOLA

A luxury high-rise apartment building in New Orleans being developed by Mike Wampold is nearing completion and will be ready for its first tenants in June. “We unfurled the banner advertising it last week, and already we’re getting tons of calls,” says Wampold. The project, called 100 Elk, is a 96-unit, 17-story building on the edge of the Central Business District at the corner of Elk Place and Rampart Street. Formerly known as Elk Place, the 1970s-era building was dilapidated when Wampold acquired it in 2011 from the late Marie Bickham. He has spent some $20 million over the past year turning the property into a high-rise complex with one-, two- and three-bedroom units that rent for between $2 and $2.25 per square foot—about 50% more than new residential units in downtown Baton Rouge are fetching. “It’s a very different market,” says Wampold. “It is much bigger, much more urban, much more competitive … buildings are being built up right and left.” Wampold’s renovation of Elk Place included adding balconies, a rooftop pool and an entertainment area with an arbor. The ground floor will house retail tenants in what is an up-and-coming area in the CBD. “It’s right on the edge of downtown, the medical district and the entertainment district,” he says. “It’s booming.” Though this isn’t the Baton Rouge-based developer’s first project in New Orleans—he has done hotels there­ previously—it is his first residential project in the Crescent City. Will it be his last? “We don’t have aggressive plans to move down there,” he says. “But we’ll wait and see what develops.” —Stephanie Riegel