NEW ORLEANS — One of New Orleans’ most recognizable skyscrapers has now become one of the city’s most notorious blighted properties.
South Rampart Street between Julia Street and Howard Avenue is closed once again, until further notice due to the safety risk of debris falling off the abandoned Plaza Tower.
Electrical contractor Bert Fos is working on a building across the street.
“I’d like to see it remodeled into something, a hotel, you know, anything,” Fos said. “It’s one of the older landmarks in the city.”
Fos added if it can’t be remodeled, the more than 50-year-old, 45-story Plaza Tower should be demolished.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell is now weighing options to make the building safer including tearing it down.
“If we move forward with demolition that we do expect litigation,” Cantrell said. “That would halt the immediate demolition.”
Plaza Tower is now for sale.
Wednesday, current owner Joe Jaeger told WWL-TV, he has received 6 offers on the building. The offers are now under review by him and city leaders.
In the meantime, Jaeger says he’s hired an engineering firm to inspect the condition of the steel structure, metal cladding and marble panels.
He complained that scavengers are now ripping metal from the side of the parking garage.
“We continue to secure Plaza Tower on a repeated basis,” Jaeger said in a written statement. Bi-weekly inspections are made, and work required to secure any new openings are done on an as-needed basis. The break-ins are being done by skilled criminals that do this all around the city, on vacant, unoccupied buildings, stripping them of anything they believe has salvage value. They have construction power tools and have been able to cut through any and all barriers we have put up, to date.”
Donald Tucker is homeless and now living under the building’s front canopy.
He says he’s seen the scavengers coming and going.
“Yeah, they’re stripping the building,” Tucker said. “They got three or four of them coming in and stripping that building.”
Jaeger is also talking with the contractor that installed netting on top of the building to see what it would take to put a similar barrier over the entire exterior wall of concern.
A city spokesman said Code Enforcement brought Plaza Tower ownership to hearing in November 2021, alleging 15 violations of the City's Minimum Property Maintenance Code.
He added there were 11 "guilty" findings from a hearing officer, who imposed a total of $4,200 in fines.
The case was appealed to Civil District Court, putting the Code Enforcement process on hold.
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