NEW ORLEANS — At a Tuesday hearing, a lawyer for the owner of Plaza Tower revealed the building could be sold very soon.
"The owner did sign a purchase agreement last night. The purchaser is in the due diligence period so we’re hopefully moving towards getting this building sold redeveloped and back in commerce," Nick Dietzen said.
But before owner Joe Jaeger hands over the keys, he may have to pay the City of New Orleans hundreds of thousands of dollars. The city says they've spent a substantial amount of money to secure the building.
"Efforts by the owner to secure the property from entry have been ineffectual and inconsistent. In addition, the building has had surface elements on the façade fall from the building hitting pedestrians and vehicles. In the past five years on numerous occasions the city has had to erect barriers redirecting traffic around the structure," a city representative said in Tuesday's hearing.
Tuesday, the city asked for a reimbursement of over $90,000. They say this covers street barricades, loss of parking revenue due to street closures and personnel. The city says this is the first of many times they'll try to get their money back.
A Monday report from the city's Inspector General though says Jaeger should be fined over a million dollars for 11 code violations, but the report says instead, the city only fined Jaeger about $4,000.
Jaeger's lawyer says he disagrees.
"Some of these costs might be owed however, maybe not all of them and at the cost that is being suggested," Dietzen said. "There’s a lack of support for these costs there’s a lack of opportunity on our part to review the support and the support that was produced has some issues and error with it."
The judge said the city has in fact paid a lot of money to secure the building, but did not make a decision Tuesday. She said she's looking for more time and written out arguments to make a decision in the coming weeks.
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