NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans residents are a step closer to getting a Trader Joe's Uptown.
On Thursday, the New Orleans City Council voted unanimously against the Historic District Landmarks Commission's recommendation that an empty school building in the desired location cannot be demolished.
"I can tell you that what is going in is a specialty grocery store. And New Orleans, we all know, lacks grocery stores, especially affordable grocery stores," Councilmember Lesli Harris said.
The council approved a conditional use permit for the project. The vote clears the way for the specialty grocery store Trader Joe's to be built near the corner of Freret Street and Napoleon Avenue.
The former Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Complex is currently located there. The grocery store proposes to knock down only the school building of the complex, leaving the church building intact.
The Historic District Landmarks Commission voted that the entire complex should be preserved. .
Others opposed pointed out that a Rouses opened in the past few years just a few blocks from where the Trader Joe’s would go.
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