Mid City Redevelopment Alliance expanding its role into brownfields

After more than 10 years of trying to acquire the necessary funds, the Mid City Redevelopment Alliance has finally been able to clean environmental hazards out of portions of the building it occupies. The work was accomplished with help from a $200,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency/Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality grant. The 22,000-square-foot building on North 19th St. actually consists of four separate spaces, but the alliance has only been able to use two. Now that the environmental cleanup is done, the alliance is prepared to accept donation of the building from owner Dillard’s, says Samuel Sanders, the group’s executive director. Sanders says the alliance plans to build out the new space to house its offices, a classroom and a boardroom, then renovate its current office space for lease. Sanders says the “dream” improvements would cost about $1 million, so the group likely will wait until the market for real estate financing improves. Its experience with this project could be useful, he says, for working with developers to clean up other sites in Mid City. “DEQ is looking for nonprofit organizations that can step up and be players in this kind of work,” he says. “It’s a long, tedious process. We can wait, whereas a developer is a little more impatient.” The alliance hopes to work with the Gulf Coast Housing Partnership at the site of a former Olinde’s clearance store on the corner of 19th and North streets for a possible 32-loft, 36-townhouse development. —David Jacobs