University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO Planning and Urban Studies Reports and Presentations Department of Planning and Urban Studies 5-2009 Gentilly Retail Study: 2009 Department of Planning and Urban Studies, University of New Orleans Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/plus_rpts Part of the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Recommended Citation Department of Planning and Urban Studies, University of New Orleans, "Gentilly Retail Study: 2009" (2009). Planning and Urban Studies Reports and Presentations. Paper 5. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/plus_rpts/5 This Study is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Planning and Urban Studies at ScholarWorks@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Planning and Urban Studies Reports and Presentations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Gentilly Retail Study: 2009 university of new orleans urban and regional planning May 2009 Graduate Student Planning Team: Chris Aghayan Lisa Kamuf Rosie Lacy By: Krista Lestina University of New Orleans Lucas Lilly Masters of Urban and Regional Michelle Little Planning Larry Massey MURP 6720 Caps tone, Spr ing 2009 Matthew Mourning Robert Peterson Professors: Catherine Poudin Dr. Renia Ehrenfeucht Michael Powers DMlDr. Marla NlNelson Jason Stopa Jason Tudor EXECUTIVE SUMARY 001 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The following report is an analysis of retail in Gentilly in the Any regional scale retail development will face competition Sppgring 2009 term with some updates throughout the semester from neiggghboring Jefferson Parish. Additionally, aformerhigh (site inventory was taken in the last two weeks of January and profile retail development in New Orleans East is being first week of February). The report reflects data gathered by a redeveloped and could become another competitor. Moreover, graduate student planning team from the University of New Gentilly retail areas were built to support a larger population Orleans Department of Urban and Regional Planning. Professors that was centralized in Orleans Parish. The city and Gentilly Renia Ehrenfeucht and Marla Nelson directed thirteen graduate were losing residents pre‐storm and Hurricane Katrina students in producing this report. The team’s objective was to quickened that population loss. It is unclear how long it will take produce a reliable source of current information for community the area to regain its pre‐storm population. decision‐makers and stakeholders to use in the recovery of retail services and community enhancements throughout The area also has opportunities. It could improve its retail Gentilly. The study area was defined as Planning District Six, the options by capturing more of the residents’ retail purchases by St. Bernard Area and the commercial area between Chef increasing the mix of services and niche markets. One Menteur Highway and I‐10 in the Gentilly Woods neighborhood. immediate opportunity is the district’s four universities that draw a large number of students and employees everyday. The report evaluates the capacity for Gentilly residents to support retail services close to four years after Hurricane The site inventory showed outdated retail design and Katrina. To estimate demand, the team utilized current unoccupied structures. Residents have identified these as demographic data available through Environmental Systems problems in each planning process. The vacant properties also Research Institute (ESRI) and Bureau of Labor Statistics allow flexibility when developing new businesses in Gentilly. Consumer Expenditure Survey data. It also developed an Innovative retail trends integrate community resources and inventory of retail development in the area and estimated offer a pleasing aesthetic environment. supportable square feet of retail space using sales per square foot figures from Dollars and Cents of Shopping Centers (2006) The report is divided into chapters. Chapter 1 (p. 3) describes published by the Urban Land Institute. the project area. Chapter 2 (p. 11) discusses contemporary trends in retail development. Chapter 3 (p. 23) is the inventory The team identified several factors that limit retail development of Gentilly’s commercial areas and their state of repair and in Gentilly. These include nearby competing commercial areas, occupancy in January 2009; Chapter 4 (p. 73) discusses retail population loss, national retail trends toward big box shopping demand in the project area, the amount of retail space centers, and the district’s “hard” or behavioral boundaries that residents, employees and students can support, and how these serve as barrier to those outside the district (I‐610, Lake compare with available space. Chapter 5 (p.95) discusses Pontchartrain, City Park, the Industrial Canal). techniques to create a vibrant retail environment and chapter 6 (p. 109) details available financing tools and incentives. The appendices follow (p. 121). CHAPTER I –GENTILLY OVERVIEW & PROJECT AREA 004 UNIVERSITY OF NEW ORLEANS INTRODUCTION RESILIENCY At present, Gentilly is better known for its neat rows of post‐ demand and how does the retail demand for goods and services World War II housing than its retail environment. The quiet, compare with available commercial space in Gentilly? What largely middle class communities that comprise the sizeable strategies can help attract and retain retail and services to district were largely residential. Residents typically commuted improve the quality of life of both present and potential Gentilly to their jobs outside Gentilly and returned to their residents? neighborhoods at night. Hurricane Katrina arrived in August 2005 and left in its wake catastrophic flooding that covered at This retail demand study has three objectives: least 80 percent of Orleans Parish. Gentilly was not spared. Many of its neigg,hborhoods, such as Milneburg, St. Anthony, and • First, the report provides a snapshot of the retail inventory Filmore, were some of the city's hardest‐hit areas, having in the project area by retail district, which range in size from experienced flood depths of over eight feet for a series of weeks the Chef Menteur commercial corridor to individual after Katrina's initial landfall. Considering the devastating storefronts. impacts of the storm on Gentilly, an outsider might think the low‐lying area could not recover. But as of January 2009, the • Second, the analysis assesses anticipated demand in the Brookings Institution' s New Orleans Index reports that the projtject area to dtdeterm ine the lllevel of retiltail and services district has repopulated to 57 percent of its pre‐Katrina levels. that residents and visitors could support. It also compares these figures with what is currently available. Pre‐ and post‐storm, Gentilly retail was a concern of the residents of the area, who observed a loss of both population • Finally, the report includes a discussion of incentives to help and retail stores pre‐storm. This trend is amplified in post‐ with redevelopment, technical support for businesses, and KtiKatrina Gen tilly. With ongoing redldevelopmen tit is ittimportant to strategies to address temporarily underutilized land. reverse or properly plan for this tendency. While vacancy remains an important factor to consider in the recovery process, this report emphasizes the retail capacity of the project area and the potential of returning vacant properties back into Left: Future commerce. home of Canseco’s grocery on OUR PURPOSE Elysian Fields The purpose of our report is to examine the demand for goods and services and available retail space in Gentilly circa January 2009. While the challenges imposed by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and specifllficallyGentillycannotbeoverstated,we look especially to the future of retail in Gentilly. The guiding questions behind our analysis are as follows: what is the retail GENTILLY OVERVIEW & PROJECT AREA 005 THE PROJECT AREA BOUNDARIES & DEFINITION The project area, referred to as Gentilly, is located in the north‐ Map 1.1: Project Area central part of New Orleans and is bounded on the north by Lake Pontchartrain, on the south by Interstates 10 and 610, on thewestbyBayouSt.Johnand on theeastbythe Inner Harbor Navigational Canal (IHNC), better known as the Industrial Canal. The project area includes the St. Bernard Area neighborhood, the neighborhoods in Gentilly, and the neighborhoods along the lake. Unless otherwise specified, the terms project area and Gentilly will be used interchangeably to refer to the larger combined area of Gentilly proper, the St. Bernard Area, and the Lake Area neighborhoods. The project area is a composite of nine residential neighborhoods as defined by the city. Many informal neighborhoods are defined and recognized by the residents of the project area, however in this study it is important to reflect the city‐defined neighborhoods for the purpose of institutional data collection. Most fall within Planning District 6. The primary traffic arteries are St. Bernard Avenue, Paris Avenue, Elysian Fields Avenue, and Franklin Avenue as well as Leon C. Simon Drive, Robert E. Lee Boulevard, and Gentilly Boulevard. Most of the retail areas that exist within the project area line one of these commercial thoroughfares. For this analysis, we have divided each retail area within the project area into one of four categories based on building scale and retail type: (in descending order) Regional, District, Neighborhood, and Pedestrian. Each typology is further discussed