New Orleans plans to buy a shopping center

The City of New Orleans is about to become the proud owner of a shopping center. The state of Louisiana has approved the $4.3 million purchase of Gentilly Woods Shopping Center by the New Orleans Redevelopment Agency, which allowed the city’s Office of Recovery and Development Administration to use federal funds for the buy. The funding comes from the Long Term Community Recovery Program, a $700 million pool of federal Community Development Block Grant money to help local governments rebuild. When the levees at the Industrial and London Avenue canals failed after Hurricane Katrina, the Gentilly Woods Shopping Center and surrounding area was submerged in eight feet of water. The shopping center — which served as the gateway to the Gentilly Woods and Pontchartrain Park neighborhoods and was one of the region’s earliest shopping centers — now stands vacant and stigmatizes the area as permanently damaged. The property will be rehabilitated or torn down, depending on market conditions and interest from potential tenants. Richard Monteilh, the agency’s acting director, said there have been early talks with major retailers to gauge their interest. He said his agency plans to seek another $3 million in grant funds from the city and to ask the developer eventually brought into the project to match the agency’s investment in the mall property.