Building up: In an effort to bolster affordable housing, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center has granted $150,000 to the Housing First Alliance of the Capital Area—a group of local nonprofits formed after the 2016 August flood. The money will be used to purchase resources, services or the technical assistance needed to expedite the availability of affordable rental housing in Baton Rouge. GNOFHAC previously gave local nonprofits $200,000 to assist with the housing recovery after the flood.
Cleaning up: The Bluffs on Thompson Creek has reopened on a limited basis after a weekend storm dumped 16 inches of rain in the St. Francisville and Clinton areas, causing Thompson Creek to overflow its banks and inundate parts of the course. Not every hole was impacted, says a new release from the course operators, and cleanup work is underway. Repairs are expected to take two weeks to complete, during which the course will remain open.
Risky move: GGP, owner of the Mall of Louisiana, is doing something unthinkable in the era of Amazon and shuttering department stores: It’s building a large shopping mall. The Wall Street Journal reports GGP broke ground on the SoNo Collection, a Norwalk, Connecticut, mall slated to open in 2019. It could be one of the last enclosed malls ever built in the United States. Mall development peaked in the 70s and steadily declined. Six large malls were built between 2006 and 2015, compared to 54 during the previous decade. Read more. (subscription may be required)
