Hospitality Design - January/February 2015 - 96

under the radar

new
orleans
A few years ago, New Orleans experienced a
hotel development boom that was part postKatrina cleanup and part 2013 Super Bowl
preparedness. Now, after a brief lull, the
momentum has started anew, dovetailing
with plans that call for a major convention
center expansion, the $200 million South
Market District mixed-use development, and
a huge $826 million redevelopment of the
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International
Airport (each with unspecified hotel
components). These advancements are all
part of a concerted effort to increase visitors
from the current nine million-plus per
year to 13 million by 2018-the city's 300th
anniversary-according to the New Orleans
Conventions & Visitors Bureau.
"New Orleans was hit by a double
whammy-first Hurricane Katrina and
then the global financial crisis," says Kevin
Davis, an executive vice president for Jones
Lang LaSalle's (JLL) hotel and hospitality
investment banking group. "Institutional
investors lost interest in the market, but
with the improved performance of the
region's hotels, New Orleans is poised for a
tremendous rediscovery."

In With the New

Although much of the action concerns
renovations of varying scopes, a few new
projects are set to be unveiled, each of them
significant adaptive reuse efforts. The Old
No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery, a 167-key offering
from Provenance Hotels, takes up residence
in an 1854 warehouse that had been
inhabited by the Ambassador Hotel for the

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January/February 2015 hospitalitydesign.com

last two decades. Jeremy Levitt, principal
at New York-based Parts and Labor Design,
says he's striving for a Big Easy vibe of
"gracious meets gritty." The $14 million
renovation includes a complete gutting of
the lobby, which will feature a continuous
countertop that meanders from the reception
desk, morphs into a coffee bar and graband-go space, switches to a bar, and ends
up at a shucking station-running 70 feet
and changing materials along the way from
wood to onyx to stainless steel.
Similarly, the circa-1871 Cotton Exchange
building, a National Historic Landmark that
most recently housed an eponymous hotel,
provided a "beautiful canvas" to introduce
the AC Hotels by Marriott brand to the U.S.,
says Kimberley Miller, CEO and principal
at Dallas-based Design DMU. After an
$18 million renovation, the 220-room AC
Hotel New Orleans Bourbon targets the
"next generation of travelers," with touches
including hardwood floors, hydration
stations, and an emphasis on helping guests
stay plugged in. Throughout, Miller says,
art and artifacts sourced from local galleries
and antique dealers are set against a neutral
color palette and "rich, high-end materials
like gold glass walls and bronze leatherwrapped panels."
Also in the central business district,
Aloft New Orleans Downtown will arrive in
late February as a conversion of a 1962-dated
building that will include 188 guestrooms,
an outdoor splash pool, keyless check-in, the
brand's signature W XYZ bar, and a design
partnership with retailer Design Within
Reach. Rooms feature a color scheme of gray

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