New Plans For the Market Street Power Plant

The Market Street Power plant has been part of the New Orleans riverfront for 120 years. Locals are familiar with the big Victorian-style smokestacks but they won’t be there for long. The new owners, local developers Louis Lauricella and Brian Gibbs, are currently devising plans to convert the property into a hotel, offices, shops, and some kind of entertainment venue.

The Market Street Power Plant, an old coal-fired plant, was built in 1902 by Entergy Corp. Entergy was responsible for supplying electricity to New Orleans.

This is not the first person to plan to convert the old plant. Developer Joe Jaeger purchased the plant in 2015 for $8.7 million and had plans to turn it into a Live Nation music venue. In 2020 he put the property up for sale along with an additional 7-acres surrounding the plant for $16.9 million.

Now the 160,000-square-foot power plant will be turned into a “new-to-market concept which will include restaurants, retail, entertainment, hotel, and office space.

“The Market Street Power Plant site is an important piece of our overall vision for the riverfront,” Lauricella said. “This site holds the potential to be a transformative project for our community.”

The project is just a small part of the new area which is called The River District. Adjacent to the plant is the 39-acres that will be the remaining part of the new entertainment-focused district. The district will include housing, retail, entertainment, and office space and will cost around $1 billion. There will be a civil rights museum as well as around 300 apartments that will be affordable for lower-income residents.

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