"The state still does not own two parcels."

That's funny.  At the UMC Board meeting yesterday, Jerry Jones with the Office of Facilities Planning and Control said that the state owned all the parcels in the UMC Footprint.

NOTE: Unless these two parcels are the Cox blockhouse property that is staying and one other - at least one property will apparently be used by contractors on site.

Watch the Land - Henry Herdman's Properties

A slew of property transfers for the LSU Footprint went through between March 10 and 15 of this year.  I've excerpted, from Nola.com, the ones that pertain to the proposed hospital site below.  Note the preponderance of Henry Herdman Properties:

NEW ORLEANS REAL ESTATE TRANSFERS
Saturday, April 02, 2011

NEW ORLEANS

Transfers filed March 10-15

1ST DISTRICT

Canal St. 1830-32-34: Henry Herdman Properties LLC to LSU Board of Supervisors A&M College and Division of Administration, Office of the Governor Division, $279,657.

Cleveland Ave. 1716: Dixie International Tours Inc. to LSU Board of Supervisors A&M College and Division of Administration Office of the Governor, $135,000.

Cleveland Ave. 1800, 1804: Henry Herdman Properties LLC to LSU Board of Supervisors A&M College and Division of Administration, Office of the Governor Division, $41,000.

Cleveland Ave. 1805-07-09-11: Henry Herdman Properties LLC to LSU Board of Supervisors A&M College and Division of Administration, Office of the Governor Division, $55,000.

(Continues after the break)

Demolitions, Displacement Continue in LSU Footprint - "Ground breaking" set

In that past week or two, site preparation work in the LSU or UMC Footprint has ramped up compared to the relative lull that preceded it.  It appears that some houses, upon being boarded, may actually be waiting for a moving process.  I hope that's the case, and we continue to work with various parties to promote and facilitate a house moving effort.  To date, not a single building has been moved off the site.

Still, demolitions of structures and clearance of trees and other vegetation continues.  In the photo above, for example, you'll see the vacant lot that remains after the bracketed shotgun house at 1914-16 Palmyra Street was demolished in the past few days.  Crews are active in several different parcels in the lower part of the footprint near S. Claiborne.

Establishments like the Fastenal store on Canal and the Canal Street Guest House now sit vacant, devoid of life.

Residents, too, continue to trickle out.  There are few people left now.  Sam, who lives in the Footprint, looked on as his daughter's belongings were carted out of a camelback house at S. Prieur and Cleveland Avenue earlier this week.

One has to wonder about all of this.  The resurgence in site prep. activity seems to confirm some of what we've been hearing: that the effort to obtain HUD mortgage insurance (to make up the financing gap for the proposed UMC hospital) has failed...meaning the state will simply bull forward on a smaller hospital while talking fancifully about third party support and junk bonds.  HUD has not responded to my inquiry about the status of the UMC application.

The UMC Board is scheduled to meet on April 7 at 1:00 p.m. at the Interim LSU University Hospital.  If the meeting occurs, I'll be very interested to hear the latest on the financing.  If you'd like to speak at the meeting, be sure to show up at least 30 minutes prior to sign up, as it's a requirement for any public comment.

If the UMC and State of Louisiana have failed in the attempt to get HUD financing, it should not result in a redoubling of efforts to make the self-fulfilling prophecy come true in the LSU Footprint.  It should instead cause board members to wake up and ask why, given the smaller pile of cash onhand, the board isn't looking at going back into Charity Hospital.  That option, as has been clear all along, would require less money.

The belligerent resistance to that plan all along revealed the contempt that the state and LSU have for the City of New Orleans and its residents.

Now, the state has set up a groundbreaking for April 18 at 11:15 a.m. - regardless of the fact that the City of New Orleans has not yet revoked the public streets necessary for the proposed hospital to be built.  Nor has the state/LSU Board of Supervisors acquired all the property necessary.

A groundbreaking ceremony in the LSU Footprint on April 18 sounds a lot like hoisting a "Mission Accomplished" banner on an aircraft carrier.

The City Planning Commission considers the street revocation on April 12, and the City Council must also pass the measure after that.  Given the state's unwise, arrogant, and dismissive approach to this project, I encourage people to attend the April 12 City Planning Commission at 1 p.m. in City Council Chambers to oppose the closure of the streets.  When the City loses the streets, it loses its last bit of leverage over the project.  New Orleans should not lie down and take this.

Gone

The "For Sale" sign once on the Orleans House mansion at 1800 Canal is no longer visible on the building.

The business next to it is now gone as well, yellow signs posted on the windows.

Orleans House is now For Sale

Apparently the mansion at 1800 Canal is now up for sale - after a sheriff's sale for the property was stopped (although other properties did proceed to auction that day):

How will the New Orleans property conveyance debacle impact the LSU/VA project?

For weeks now, property conveyances have been in limbo in New Orleans due to a computer crash at the clerk's office at CDC.

How will this functional freeze impact the LSU/VA project?  I don't believe that all of the parcels in the footprint have been acquired.

This morning, a few remaining VA Footprint title transfers appeared in the Times-Picayune, but it's unclear when they were processed.

Interestingly, all of the computer data files for the property conveyances involved in the LSU/VA project are currently unavailable.  And the physical records are functionally unavailable as well:

As of Thursday the Orleans Parish Clerk of Court’s office has restored its digital mortgage records through Oct. 25, 2010, according to a statement released today by Clerk of Court Dale Atkins. Conveyance data is still only available through March 27, 2009.

All physical records remain, but are difficult to retrieve because the index that goes along with the digital system has also been temporarily lost.

I know that a number of the handful of folks who remain in the VA Footprint were waiting to close on new homes when they filed suit in federal court to stop utility shut-offs.  I am not certain if any of these property transfers have been affected.

Inside the Footprint Last Evening #8

"You are in the neighborhood of the planned VA Project."  The Regional Planning Commission/Nola Medzone handout, blown onto the sidewalk, provides contact information.

On the sidewalk itself, the green numbers and letters indicate that the lot to the left has been acquired for the VA Hospital project.  The VA itself is not doing the acquisition - the City of New Orleans is responsible for site preparation, but it has handed some of those duties to LSU and the state.  Properties will later be turned over to the VA.

Prices Paid by State to Acquire Properties in the VA and LSU Footprints

Taxpayer Funds Expended to Acquire Homes 

- Some listed homes demolished, all others destined for landfill after salvage unless moving plan comes to fruition


*This post is a work in progress.  It will be updated as data is added, and I'll place a link on the sidebar for "Property Acquisition Costs to Taxpayers."  The list is intended to a) account for the waste of taxpayer dollars in acquiring properties, and b) monitor home prices to ensure just compensation.


VA FOOTPRINT

2421-23 Banks (DEMOLISHED):  $178,000            + Photo of House

2422-24 Palmyra (DEMOLISHED): $248,000         + Photo of House

300-02 S. Miro:  $40,000                  + Photo of House

325 S. Tonti (DEMOLISHED): $39,500      + Photo of House

327 S. Tonti:  $8,300

2336 Cleveland: $65,000    + Photo of House

2412 Palmyra: $37,000      + Photo of House

229 S. Galvez: $95,000      + Photo of House

232-34 S. Miro: $227,051    + Photo of House

319 S. Tonti (DEMOLISHED): $135,000             + Photo of House

2420 Palmyra (DEMOLISHED): $124,000           + Photo of House

310-12 S. Miro: $135,000   + Photo of House

2410-12 Cleveland (DEMOLISHED): $75,000    + Photo of House

321 S. Galvez: $210,000    + Photo of House

2205 Banks Street: $200,000

2217 Banks Street: $47,000

2319 Palmyra Street: $230,000    + Photo of House

319 S. Galvez: $54,568    

314-16 Rocheblave: $114,000    

217 S. Tonti: $164,304    + Photo of House

2307-09 Banks: $404,854

2311-13 Banks: $72,413

2315-17 Banks: $443,795

2411-13 Banks: $160,000

2324 Canal + 2330 Canal + 2317 Cleveland: $3,942,000

2224 Cleveland: $141,933

2314 Cleveland: $70,192

2217 -19 Palmyra: $229,150

2323 Palmyra: $250,000

2419-21 Palmyra: $136,000

2434 Palmyra: $230,000

301-03 S. Galvez + 2212-14 Palmyra: No value stated.  Transferor: Willie H. Franklin Sr.

305-07 S. Galvez: $18,150

311-13 S. Galvez: $162,000

2323 Tulane: $82,000

2316 Palmyra: $350,083

239-41 S. Galvez: $244,552

228-30 S. Tonti: $51,000

2430 Cleveland Avenue: $164,520

2416 Cleveland Avenue: $136,000

212-14 S. Tonti: $226,512

224 S. Tonti Street: $143,068

318 S. Rocheblave Street: $19,500

322-24 S. Miro Street: $43,000
 

LSU FOOTPRINT

218 S. Prieur:  $165,000                   + Photo of House

236 S. Galvez: $8,104

240 S. Galvez: $20,293

1925 Cleveland Avenue (listed as Street in Times-Pic): $165,697

1926 Cleveland Avenue: $330,000

Palmyra St. 1918-20, 1924-26-28, 1932-34, 1938; S. Prieur St. 314-16-18, 322-24; Tulane Ave. 1919-21, 1927, 1935, 1939 – no value stated, New Orleans Medical Complex to LSU Supervisors

303-05 S. Roman St.  - $83K, Herman Jerome Scott to LSU Supervisors

2105 Cleveland ave. – $375K Cox Communications to LSU

2109 Cleveland Ave.  - $195K Cox to LSU

1919-23 Cleveland ave.  - $65,252 Janice R Manuel to LSU

2122 Cleveland Ave., S. Galvez St. 200,218, 220 - $517,100 Deutsches Haus to LSU

2028-30 Palmyra: Louisiana Land Trust to LSU Board of Sup. and Div. of Administration Office of the Governor - no value stated.

1808-10 Cleveland Avenue: $35,700

Status of Acquisitions

As the VA seeks to break ground symbolically tomorrow, it's interesting to look at the status of property acquisitions in the footprints for the proposed medical complexes.

Here are the numbers for private property acquisition as of May 2010, the most recent I could find, per a report by the contractor, as linked to by the Louisiana Department of Administration:

VA Footprint:

 25 closings completed out of 194 total parcels to acquire.

LSU Footprint:

10 closings completed out of 245 parcels to acquire.


If anyone has more up to date figures, I would like to see them.  But it seems there's still a rather long way to go.

A New Website and Resource

The VA Footprint Booklet of historic properties is now online at a new web site.

It gives an idea of the over 100 properties that were deemed "contributing properties" to the Mid-City National Register Historic District.  It's a data set that's critical to having an informed discussion about what's at stake in the footprint.

At least one of the properties shown has now been demolished - I haven't confirmed whether 319 S. Tonti was demolished later in the day yesterday.