The owner of Plaza Tower, a notorious eyesore at the edge of the South Market District in downtown New Orleans, has signed a purchase and sales agreement with a prospective buyer who plans to convert the 1960s skyscraper into subsidized apartments for low-income seniors.
The agreement is the culmination of several months of talks between the property trustee for the late Joe Jaeger, who had owned the building for the past decade, and Lincoln Avenue Communities, a California-based affordable housing developer that led the redevelopment of the nearby Tivoli Place Apartments at Harmony Circle last year.
David Garcia, a partner at Lincoln Avenue, said Tuesday that the aim would be to convert the 45-story tower into about 325 residential units and to come up with a plan for retail and other commercial uses for the ground floor and annex space on the Howard Avenue side of the complex.
He said a preliminary report from an engineering firm shows that extensive remediation work will be needed to make the building safe. The project — estimated to cost between $250 million and $300 million — would have to be financed almost entirely by public money, which will take many months to organize…