architecture

Dew Drop Inn set to reopen before year’s end

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The Dew Drop Inn is set to reopen in winter 2023, the developers announced Thursday (Oct. 19) in a press release. The distinctly New Orleans landmark in Central City has been restored to its former glory as one of the country’s most culturally significant music venues. 

Once known as “the South’s swankiest spot,” the Dew Drop Inn’s current revival is led by real estate developer and New Orleans native Curtis Doucette Jr., whose passion for historical Black culture and music led him to acquire the Dew Drop in 2021 and spend three years restoring the beloved site, reimagining it as a destination that blends a legendary music venue, 17-room boutique hotel, restaurant and pool club. 

From the late 1930s until the late 1960s, the Dew Drop Inn hosted some of the most iconic musicians of our time, including legendary artists like Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Tina Turner and Etta James, as well as local legends like Allen Toussaint and Irma Thomas, among many others. The venue served as an incubator for the birth of rhythm & blues and rock ’n’ roll. More than just a music venue, the Dew Drop Inn was a place where artists not only played but hung out, recorded and sometimes lived.

land use & development

Revival plans for Dew Drop Inn move forward

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The City Planning Commission was especially enthusiastic over Docket 021/21 at this week’s meeting. “I want to thank you for making me cry at a CPC meeting,” said a smiling Commissioner Sue Mobley, seconding a motion to approve the developers’ request. After a round of enthusiastic “yeas,” Commissioner Kyle Wedberg said: “I’m very excited to make this unanimous.”
This unanimous vote was not for just any conditional use to permit a hotel with live entertainment in the LaSalle Street Overlay District, with nine provisos. It was for the Dew Drop Inn. The Dew Drop, the city’s leading Black music venue for three mid-century decades, holds a hallowed position in New Orleans cultural history, in rock ’n’ roll and rhythm-and-blues history, and in the hearts of many musicians.

arts, books and music

Plan to convert the Dew Drop Inn into a hotel is dead — landmark building’s future uncertain

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By Nicholas Reimann, Uptown Messenger

Plans to redevelop the historic, dilapidated Dew Drop Inn building on Lasalle Street in Central City into a modern hotel, restaurant and music venue have officially been scrapped. A deal had been in place late last year that would have seen the 80-year-old, predominantly Jim Crow-era music venue sold to a developer with plans to renovate the two-story, 10,000-square-foot space to include 15 hotel rooms, along with a restaurant, music venue and a museum dedicated to New Orleans music. But that deal — to sell the space to Ryan Thomas and his company Peregrine Interests — fell through at the end of the year. In late April, the effort officially ended. The project had been plagued by potential investors backing out, Thomas said, with its last effort — a crowdfunding campaign — bringing in just $200 of the $1 million Thomas hoped to raise.

business

Real estate developers lead Dew Drop crowdfunding campaign

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Because initial investment plans to redevelop The Dew Drop Inn fell through, a real estate development firm is leading a crowdfunding investment campaign to restore the legendary music venue. Peregrine Interests is aiming to turn The Dew Drop Inn into a hub for the Central City neighborhood, with its tentative re-opening scheduled for September 2020. The renovated, two-story venue is planned to include a 14 guest rooms, a pool, restaurant, bar, recording studio and gift shop. Established in 1939, the Dew Drop Inn is one of the most iconic music venues to have operated in New Orleans. Located in the heart of Central City, The Dew Drop Inn became one of the most celebrated and successful venues for the New Orleans African-American community, as well as the local music community.

arts, books and music

Dew Drop Inn renovation deal falls through, but hopes for redevelopment remain

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By Nicholas Reimann, Uptown Messenger

The future of the historic Dew Drop Inn on LaSalle Street in Central City is once again in doubt, after a deal to restore the dilapidated former music hall fell through. Ryan Thomas, owner of real estate development company Peregrine Interests, said a difficulty getting investors for the planned two-story development with a hotel, museum and restaurant — along with a music venue — is what held up the deal that was set to close Dec. 30. The property’s owners are now looking at other offers, according to Scott Graf, a commercial real estate agent with Coldwell Banker. The sale agreement called for 15 hotel rooms at the 80-year-old site, with a total of 10,000 feet of renovated space.

arts, books and music

Iconic ​Dew Drop Inn set for redevelopment, restoring music hall closed in 1970

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By Nicholas Reimann

“Oh baby, Dew Drop Inn. I’ll meet you at the Dew Drop Inn.”

Those are words you might soon hear outside of just the 1970 Little Richard song “Dew Drop Inn,” as a developer takes the first steps in an ambitious project to restore the historic hotel and music hall on LaSalle Street in Central City — once a common stopping point for top African-American musicians performing in the Jim Crow South, including James Brown, Tina Turner and Ray Charles. The latter even lived in the hotel at one point. The project’s developers had their first chance to show their proposal for a revived Dew Drop Inn to the public at a neighborhood participation meeting Saturday, Nov. 17, where they took input as well as outlined the plan for a completely renovated two-story space totaling around 10,000 square feet — including 15 hotel rooms, a restaurant, music venue and museum of New Orleans music.