Shell Corporation Moving to the River District

Shell’s corporate, along with the 800 employees, will be moving to the River District. The headquarters is currently located on Poydras Street. The project should be completed by late 2024 or early 2025.

Employees are overjoyed with the decision due to the fact that many energy companies have been moving to Texas. “This is an exciting announcement that further solidifies the long-standing and successful relationship between Louisiana and Shell. This is a significant investment in the city and our state, and I’m grateful to everyone involved in turning this concept into reality,” said Governor John Bel Edwards.

“We have been an integral part of the community and the working coast….and we are committing to stay here with a new building,” said Colette Hirstius, Senior VP of Shell’s Gulf of Mexico location.

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Delays For the New Convention Center's River District Plan

 

The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center has plans for its upriver acres. The new project includes a neighborhood and entertainment district. The River District's board decided to extend the deadline. The reason for the delay was prompted by a request from the Convention Center's President and General Manager Michael Sawaya. He relayed to the board that they needed until June to finalize the terms of the agreement with local developer Lou Lauricella and his consortium.

"Delays are not well accepted," Sawaya said. "When we are talking about these things it is not just about us getting lease income...We need things built and we need guarantees that we are going to get things built."

The coronavirus has been a big thorn in the side of this project. Originally a 1,200-room hotel by Omni was to be part of the project. This was dropped due to the change on the outlook for hotels caused by the pandemic. Back to the drawing board, Sawaya has commissioned HVS which is a consulting firm to look into what hotel size would work best for the project.

HVS will look at building in phases. This will include a 600, 900, and 1,200 room versions of a hotel. Now they will need to find a finance partner who will replace the previous one, Preston Hollow Capital.

"Right now we don't have something for (a potential new financial investor) to look at," Sawaya said. "But in the first phase at least we've got to get something started." He said that now that the broader upriver district is underway, "our hope is that investors will show up (for the hotel) as well."

Business is improving for the Convention Center as hotel tax revenue has rebounded to close to $3 million. In fact, the past month has been the busiest for sales at the Convention Center since the pandemic. This comes at a great time with the project in the near future and the $557 million facelift the center is currently getting.

Lauricella and Chris Maguire, CEO of Dallas-based Cypress Equities are the master developers for the entertainment-focused neighborhood. This part will be on 39-acres that the Convention owns upriver. The project will include 1,100 housing units which half will be dedicated to lower-income residents. There will also be retail space and entertainment venues.

The 39-acres, valued at around $200 million, will be given to the project. The project will create around 4,500 permanent jobs and will cost over $1 billion. The plans are to begin construction on the first section of the project, a 7-acre tract of lakeside that runs along Tchoupitoulas Street.

"The brief extension on a final agreement will give the team more time to finalize plans for the vast amount of land to be developed for our community," said Lauricella in an emailed comment.

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