David Rubenstein and his family have seen the highs and lows of Canal Street during almost a century in business.
Now, after decades of decline, he's optimistic that Canal has begun a comeback -- albeit a slow one.
“My father years ago worked for one of the Latters, who was great in real estate. And as my father was always taught by him, he said, 'Sometimes you gotta wait 20 years. Sometimes you gotta wait 40 years. But there are certain things, you look at a location and if it's good, it'll come back,” Rubenstein said Monday.
About to come back is 1016 Canal St., which burned in a fire nearly three years ago. Now work will begin to transform it into a mix of commercial short-term rentals on the top floors and commercial space on the bottom.
Plans call for doing the same at 623 Canal St. and the Sanlin building in the 400 block.
A group called Sonder will lease the upper floors and fill them with a total of 200 commercial short-term rental units. City leaders hope that will take the pressure off of residential neighborhoods where some are unhappy with the churn that short-term rentals have caused, while driving up housing prices.
All three buildings on Canal are owned by Quarter Holdings, LLC, operated by the Motwani family. For years, a number of their buildings have been fined and cited for code violations. Since the fire that gutted 1016 Canal in January 2016, the Motwanis have had to pay more than $3,500 in fines and court fees for code violations.
Aaron Motwani said tough times on Canal in recent decades are partly to blame for delays in restoring their properties.
“Canal Street's been a hard place to attract retail. It's been a hard place to attract residents,” he said. “Now with our deal with Sonder, it allows us to develop the upper floors.”
City leaders, such as Council President Jason Williams, hope housing on the upper floors will attract people -- and their money. During a groundbreaking ceremony for 1016 Canal on Monday, he envisioned a Canal Street with big-name retailers: an Apple store, Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, and Crate and Barrel, for example.
But for all the optimism about the future of Canal Street, there are some business owners who still see major problems. In the way: crime and blight. In recent weeks, a tourist was shot by a man in front of 623 Canal, one of the buildings set to undergo a renovation.
Those are some issues that could take years to resolve.
Rubenstein noted that the building at 623 Canal was the former Leonard Krower store. He is hopeful any progress will continue.
“It's great to see things like that come back,” he said.
Danny Monteverde can be reached at danny@wwltv.com.