Algiers housing project wins preliminary bond approval

Developers who want to build a 324-unit rental housing complex with a parking garage and 10,000 square feet of retail space received preliminary approval for bonds in an amount not to exceed $60 million from the Industrial Development Board today. The proposed complex would take shape on a 14-acre tract near Federal City in Algiers.

The IDB is the public body that considers requests for tax breaks and bond financing for development projects in New Orleans. Preliminary approval allows the developers to begin shopping the bonds to investors. But the project would need final approval from the Industrial Development Board and the approval of the State Bond Commission before it would move forward to the construction phase.

U/K/I Development LLC of Washington, D.C. and J.S. Karlton Inc. of Aventura, Fla., together doing business as Algiers Crossing, would like to build the housing site at the corner of Brookline Avenue and Slidell Street. The apartments would be mixed-income units, a majority of which would be rented at market rate.

The $66 million development would employ 535 people during construction and 26 people permanently. Provided it can be financed, the project would be completed in the first quarter of 2014.

Although board members gave unanimous approval to the preliminary bond issuance, many expressed reservations about the project because they said it didn't provide sufficient detail regarding how much money the developers themselves were investing in their proposal.

Steve Abdo, one of three developers who appeared before the board on behalf of the project, said they expect that there will be 25 percent equity in the project, 80 percent of which will have come from the developers. 

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Algiers housing project wins preliminary bond approval