The Magazine Street view of the redevelopment. (rendering by Studio WTA architects)
An upcoming redevelopment slated for three buildings on the corner of Magazine and Nashville streets means that a handful of local shops are moving to make way for a New York City-based business, small business owners and the location’s development company said this week.
The proposed redevelopment from the corner of Magazine and Nashville. (rendering by Studio WTA architects)
Butler Callahan Holdings development company bought the property on the 5700 block of Magazine, in an area that currently houses the three specialty shops Rare Cuts, Vom Fass and Parcels and Post. Ben Butler, a managing partner of the company, said Thursday that while he can’t yet announce the name of any new businesses slated to take over the spot, he can say that the company is “in lease negotiations with a very exciting tenant out of New York City.”
“It’s going to be a great addition to the neighborhood,” Butler said. “We have a lot of interest in the property.”
Butler expects construction to begin in May. In November 2013, Butler told Uptown Messenger that he plans on aligning the front of the corner building with the other two, joining the three structures into one space. Butler added that developers envisioned a restaurant with outdoor seating as a major portion of the project, while the remaining buildings would be a mix of shops and retail.
“We’re very focused on stable, higher-end locations, and going in and doing redevelopment or new development,” Butler said in November.
As construction nears, not everyone is excited about the project, however. Representatives from all three businesses being displaced say they don’t want to have to leave their current locations.
“We’ve been here for four years, so we’re established and it’s convenient,” said Chris Herman, the owner of Vom Fass, an “Old-world European” shop that sells oils, vinegars and spirits. “We hate to move but there’s not much to do about it. We just have to hope we’ll have as much success in the new location.”
Herman said that she’s “in negotiations” with a leaser, and can’t yet announce where Vom Fass will be located. Currently, it’s housed on 5725 Magazine Street, but that will change by the end of April, she said.
The other two businesses, however, won’t be going far. Parcels and Post, a specialty shop that ships packages, will be headed five blocks down the road to 5208 Magazine Street, according to owner Heidi Hammond.
And Rare Cuts, a ranch-to-table high-end meat purveyor, will be going a “whopping block and a half” down the street on Magazine Street, next to Tacqueria Corona, according to Mickey Reid, the wife of the shop’s owner.
“We just signed the lease on the first. Now we have to take seriously and gut the whole entire place,” Reid said, adding that the couple plans to expand with retail on one side and private dining on the other.
Reid says that the new location could be open by the middle of April. The company also has a shop opening on West End Boulevard in September, she added, but Reid is thankful that the Uptown shop won’t have to move far.
“We don’t want to leave the neighborhood, we love the neighborhood,” Reid said. “The neighborhood treats us really well.”
New York City, you say? Guess that means they’ll be selling kale.
Hurray for Brooklyn South..
Gentrification????????
Now I hear from a very reliable source (someone with a PO Box and account at Parcels and Post) that the new owner is having trouble finding new tenants for his three properties. He has approached the ones he asked to leave to re-negotiate their leases, but all three have found new addresses, leaving him high and dry. Good luck idiot….
Interesting…
Doesn’t look like they are keeping with the New Orleans look of the area….
Any word where Rare Cuts is going? I keep meaning to go check out what they have.
Yes, there were about twenty words on it.
Wow, not sure how I missed that. Thanks.
Ummm…?
Why do we have to have a NYC business ? Why change the look of the storefronts from traditional Creole cottages? What do the developers mean by gentrification of the area? Why force out local Magazine street small business for something from out of state? Shouldn’t we support local business ? Shouldn’t we keep New Orleans unique?
They weren’t “forced out.” They are relocating down the street in the same neighborhood.
What are you talking about? In the drawing above the two existing creole cottages are clearly still there, and the developer has no announced plans to tear them down – just connect them. The building in the foreground is obviously not a creole cottage – although it does appear to be in the familiar New Orleans neighborhood corner store format – but it’s replacing a parking lot, for chrissakes.
This is typical of the NEW New Orleans. Anything standard American / from some place else: nothing local. Anything for the visitors: nothing for the locals. Tourists rule! Long live Dizneylandrieu!
New York City?!?!
Git a rope.
Get a rope.
What?? Moving a butcher, an Old-world European oil shop, and a parcel business is not gentrification.
At least they’re using local architects…
There
are a lot of neighborhoods in the city that have needed major
development for years (well before Hurricane Katrina). Magazine and
Nashville is not one of those areas.
Unfortunately many of the neighborhoods that need major development the most have made themselves unworkable to developers thanks to unrelenting gun violence. Hard to fault developers for choosing to work elsewhere.
What does that even mean in the case of Magazine and Nashville?
Not much from New York I want in that area. I liked what was already there and then the mangling of the historical charm of the houses and making them look like some new fangled crap from Austin, TX or Kalifornia is a travesty!