Big crowd turns out for info on Mitigation Grant, Historic Tax Credits

Nearly 100 people showed up at a Mid-City Neighborhood Organization meeting last evening to learn about the Mid-City Mitigation Grant program, which stems from the LSU/VA destruction of a large portion of the Mid-City National Historic District, as well as historic tax credits.

Unnecessary Costs - Because the state went with Lower Mid-City instead of using the Charity building it already owns

$46.3 million - land acquisitions


$4.1 million for legal services related to buying or expropriating the 244 parcels on the Mid-City footprint


$2.6 million on relocation programs, including $721,805 of that on professional services contracts


$284,581 on demolitions

The other costs listed in the Times-Picayune article may or may not have been similar for a retrofit of Charity Hospital.

But the bottom line remains valid: The UMC site, as proposed for Lower Mid-City, has resulted in the project costing much more than it needed to cost.  The choice has also significantly delayed the return of care.

The state is missing out on the ability to use historic tax credits in any way by refusing to go into Charity.  It has also spent over $50 million more than needed because it chose the Lower Mid-City site as opposed to a viable alternative - at a time when it remains hundreds of millions of dollars short of the funding necessary for the Lower Mid-City option, and when the Charity retrofit would have been less expensive overall.