The long-stalled River District project, a planned mixed-use neighborhood on 47 acres of New Orleans riverfront controlled by the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, is back on track after the project’s developer and the Convention Center board agreed to a revised deal.
The agreement, which was approved by board members on Wednesday, gives the Convention Center control over more parcels of land while shifting more of the financial burden for the project to the state-controlled agency. It also clears a path for hundreds of new apartments, potentially on the property once slated for a Top Golf driving range.
Only a few months ago, the entire project was thrown into question after the development group, River District Neighborhood Investors, known as RDNI, led by Louis Lauricella, backed out of talks with the Convention Center after missing performance and payment deadlines.
Now, both sides say that there’s a path forward for a development that aims to fill a barren area along the Mississippi River with offices, apartments, retail and entertainment, and that civic leaders argue is vital for New Orleans’ hospitality sector.
The planned site of the River District neighborhood photographed in New Orleans, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
Following approval of the new agreement at the agency’s monthly meeting, Convention Center Board Chair Russell Allen praised Convention Center CEO Jim Cook and those involved in the months of high-stakes negotiations for reaching an agreement.
“This is two years in the making, back and forth, and I really want to commend you guys,” Allen said. “This is the first time we have a really promising start to a new future.”
RDNI and the Convention Center board issued a joint statement after the meeting, saying that the revised agreement represents an important step “to move our work forward in a way that is aligned with community priorities.”
‘Strategic priority’
The restructured agreement is similar in many ways to a revised deal that fell through in the fall. It terminates RDNI’s lease on all parcels, except for the one that will be occupied by a new local headquarters of Shell Oil, and converts them to purchase options.
An option will cost $250,000 and include a buy back provision the Convention Center can exercise after five years if RDNI has failed to develop an optioned parcel.
The deal is structured to make it easier for RDNI, which has missed multiple rent deadlines and failed to meet construction milestones since winning the “master developer” role in 2021, to get the project going, Cook said.
“This new format gives them some running room to get partnerships and get things moving without trying to also meet these other obligations,” he said.
As part of the deal, the Convention Center has agreed to pay $4 million for road and sewer construction in the first phase of the project, and will also pick up the tab for future infrastructure work in subsequent phases.
“It’s a lot,” Cook said of the expenditures. “That’s capital we don’t have for something else. But it shows our commitment to this project. The development of the River District is a strategic priority.”
A view of The Rivana Apartments looking down the planned Euterpe Street extension toward the Mississippi River.
Key elements of the project remain unchanged, including Shell Oil’s new regional headquarters building, which is currently under construction and scheduled to open in 2027. Plans for 900 new units of mixed-income housing, 450 of which will be set aside for renters who qualify for affordable housing, also are moving forward.
The first phase of that housing — the Rivana Apartments, which will have 220 units, including 165 “affordable” units — is “very close to closing,” Cook told the board Wednesday.
As part of the deal, the Convention Center will loan the developer $6.5 million to help finance construction of the Rivana.
‘Validating the vision’
As the project prepares to move forward, the Convention Center will hire a consultant through Corporate Realty to help with marketing the project to potential investors, and also revisit some of the assumptions that went into planning the River District five years ago.
“Five years in, we think it is wise to get a high-level assessment from folks who have expertise and have a sense of the marketplace,” Cook told the board. “This is not reimagining the vision. This is more a matter of validating the vision.”
Jim Cook
The Convention Center has met with neighbors and is continuing to gather feedback about the types of businesses it wants to see in the neighborhood.
Part of its revised agreement calls for RDNI to work with the Convention Center to revive plans to bring a $165 million Louisiana Music and Heritage Experience to the River District.
The site plan for The Rivana Apartments in the River District, the first phase of residential planned for the huge public-private development on land owned by the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The complex will have 220 units, of which 165 will be set aside for lower-income renters.
A deal to locate the museum in the district fell apart last year and the lease has since been canceled, but the project is not dead, Cook said.
District B Council member Lesli Harris, whose district includes the River District, celebrated the changes in the agreement and the project’s path forward.
“Today is a reset, but it’s more than that,” Harris said in a prepared statement. “We as partners are affirming our commitment to creating a transformational new neighborhood in District B, which serves residents first and foremost, with benefits to our city’s visitors.”
