On Wednesday afternoon, a row of officials wielding shovels marked a fresh start for a long-beleaguered corner of the Bywater: the vacant federal Navy base on Poland Avenue.
Cameras clicked as city officials and developers gathered on Wednesday to break ground at the fenced-in base, formally known as Naval Support Activity-East Bank. Over the next several years, crews will create a “mixed-use campus” of retail and office space along with much-needed affordable housing.
“This groundbreaking marks an important step in putting long-idle public land back to work for New Orleans,” Mayor Helena Moreno said.
The base’s three six-story buildings emptied in 2011, when the Navy retired the base. The site was handed over to the city two years later. Since then, its structures have sat empty as its windows were broken out and walls graffitied. It became home to many squatters and was the site of at least one shootout…