With the news that Saks Fifth Avenue plans to close its Canal Place store, we look back on the history of the Canal Place development.
The property was the brainchild of developer Joseph C. Canizaro. In 1974, Mayor Moon Landrieu’s administration agreed to swap land with Canizaro, giving him 23 acres in exchange for land he owned on Poydras Street, which would become the site of the Piazza d’Italia.
Canizaro said his Canal Place complex would “cost $400 million and will contain a hotel, office buildings, residential apartment and commercial facilities as well as extensive landscaping and green spaces,” according to an April 1974 States-Item article…