A A
RSS

Lakewood Golf Course Gets Its Swing Back!

Mon, Mar 2, 2009

In the Spotlight

By C.J. Lin | West Bank bureau:

After teetering on the verge of bankruptcy in 2003, closing in 2005 and sustaining heavy damage in Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav, Lakewood Golf Club will reopen to the public today after $9 million in renovations.

The golf course is the first phase in a $200 million plan to develop a 180-acre golf community, which will include a hotel, four-story clubhouse, conference center, golf villas, 518 condominiums, retirement center, office suites, restaurants and specialty retail.

It also represents but a fraction of the $1 billion in projects recently built or under construction in Algiers, said Ron Loesel, executive director of the Algiers Economic Development Foundation.

The work ranges from government building for the Federal City and Coast Guard headquarters to a nursing home and independent living center for the elderly to the $54 million L.B. Landry High School scheduled to reopen in fall 2010.

“Growth in Algiers is amazing to watch,” Loesel said. “There has been significant construction across Algiers this past year.” Lakewood’s reopening was marked Friday with a ceremony and tournament.

“This is a great day because this represents serious progress in terms of the recovery of the city,” New Orleans Councilman James Carter said at the event.

The course, which first opened as the Lakewood Country Club in 1961, was bought for $6 million in May 2003 by the New Orleans Firefighters Pension Fund and renamed the Lakewood Golf Club. In July 2005, it closed for renovations but construction and its reopening were delayed by Hurricane Katrina.

“Lakewood’s reopening is a tribute to the strength and resiliency of the people of New Orleans,” said Richard Hampton, CEO of the Pension Fund. “Over $9 million later, we have one of the region’s finest golf courses. The improvements to this course not only benefit Lakewood, but also this entire area, increasing property values.”

The Pension Fund also is financing the golf community project. Ground will be broken on the clubhouse in March, with an anticipated completion in 2011. Construction on the golf villas will follow, although a start date has not yet been announced. The hotel and condominiums are in the design stages.

“The economic development that’s going to come from that is indescribable,” New Orleans Council President Jackie Clarkson said. “A great golfing facility is a major attraction and with it, people come from all over the country and from all over the world sometimes. That puts Algiers in a whole different light.”

Construction on other big-ticket items has been brisk across Algiers.

The $150 million Federal City project at the Naval Support Activity, for which ground was broken in September, will be a mixed government and commercial campus that could bring 15,000 jobs to the community.

Next to the Federal City campus will be the $27 million Coast Guard Sector New Orleans headquarters, a 53,000-square-foot facility where 200 people will work. Construction is scheduled to finish in 2011.

St. Luke’s, which is a redevelopment of Little Sisters of the Poor, is a $4 million, six-story building that will house a Tulane University cardiology clinic, 70 nursing home beds, 22 apartments, a rehabilitation unit, geriatric and psychiatric units, and more.

Village Aurora Shopping Center is undergoing a $35 million overhaul and L.B. Landry High School is getting rebuilt for $54 million to reopen fall 2010.

Oak Villa, located at Bender Drive, will be a $14 million elderly independent living facility that will offer 60 two-bedroom apartments and 20 one-bedroom apartments for those 55 and older. It will be finished April 1, with an open house scheduled for April 3.

Other current projects include facade improvements to businesses on Gen. Meyer Avenue, Woodlands Trail and Park upgrades, Brechtel Park renovations, a new Rite Aid and Walgreens, a total overhaul of Gen. de Gaulle Drive, renovations to MacArthur Boulevard and Patterson Drive, a new gas station on Gen. Meyer and condominiums in Algiers Point.

C.J. Lin can be reached at clin@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3796.
Advertise Here
Live Stock Quotes
DJIA10564.38  chart+11.86
NASDAQ2340.68  chart+0.00
S&P 5001140.44  chart+1.94
GOOG560.19  chart+0.00
INTC20.94  chart+0.00
NOVL5.85  chart+0.00
PFE17.23  chart+0.00
MSFT28.80  chart+0.00
2010-03-09 16:03
What's the Latest? Get AEDF's Quick News!

  • STUDENT, SCHOOL AND DISTRICT GAINS RESULT IN ALL-TIME HIGHEST STATE PERFORMANCE SCORE

    Almost 80% of Louisiana public schools showed increases; almost 50% met 2009 Growth targets.

     

    Baton Rouge, La. - When Louisiana set its 10-year accountability goal at 100 in 1999, policy makers were unsure about how quickly the state could achieve that goal. In fact, the state had not administered a student assessment prior to setting the goal. The guiding force was the need for the state to improve at a pace that would allow it to move up from its ranking of last or near the bottom in most education measures. Today, a decade later, Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) officials announced the 2009 State Performance Score – a 91.0. While it’s short of the 10-year goal of 100, the score represents a significant gain from the score of 69.4 that was achieved the first year, in 1999, as well as a substantial 4.7 gain from the 2008 score of 86.3.

    To read more, click here.

  • City Council to Receive Presentation on Tax Appeal Recommendations

    At its next regular Council meeting on Tuesday October 20th, the City Council will receive a formal presentation from Frilot, LLC, of recommendations in connection with the 2010 tax appeals for Orleans Parish.


    The presentation will specifically provide information on the number of appeals with a break down by type and district, and a summary of the aggregate recommendations by the Board of Review (BOR).
    After the presentation, the Council, acting as the Board of Review, will vote on whether or not to approve the recommendations presented by Frilot, LLC.
    Decision letters will be mailed to all appellants by October 25th and will contain information about taking further appeals to the Louisiana Tax Commission.
    Frilot, LLC has reported a high level of participation from assessors and taxpayers, which has led to an increased number of settlements at tax appeal hearings. Hearings were held on September 30th, October 2nd and October 7th.
    Frilot has handled approximately 6,000 tax appeals over the last three years for the BOR - approximately 5,400 appeals for tax year 2008, 450 appeals for tax year 2009 and 200 for tax year 2010.
    This is the last BOR tax appeal year before the city changes to a single assessor next year.

  • New Hotel in Algiers
    Developers are poised to purchase a derelict property on Gen. de Gaulle Drive and build an extended-stay hotel, a restaurant and office space. Demolition of the buildings in the 3000 block of Gen. DeGaulle is expected to begin by September. A four-story, 124-room Value Place hotel, estimated to cost $7.5 million, will take its place. The new hotel is scheduled to open by May.

  • Abandoned Pools
    Abandoned pools are a serious health threat, especially for the children of New Orleans. The City’s enforcement agencies have been prosecuting abandoned pools since Hurricane Katrina. However, for the first time Code Enforcement is initiating a comprehensive campaign to address all abandoned pools in the City. Seven of the pools that have gone to hearings are located on the West Bank of District C. If you know of more blighted pools, please call it in to the 311 hotline for a reference number and follow-up with
    our office as well. For a list of the abandoned pools identified, Click here for more information.

Advertise Here

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

Latest Videos

Categories

Archives