'84 World's Fair leaves legacy of development for New Orleans'

New Orleans CityBusiness, Dec 1, 2003 by Deon Roberts

Twenty years ago, the rundown Warehouse District was riddled with vacancies and some of the most undesirable property in New Orleans.

Then along came the 1984 World's Fair, which came to the Crescent City after a New Orleans World's Fair Executive committee composed of business leaders raised millions.

The World's Fair opened to bad press and charges of dirty politics. Before it even closed, the 1984 World's Fair was called a flop because of lower-than-expected attendance and reams of red ink. Some vendors complained in court when they weren't paid.

The event broke a lot of hearts and emptied a lot of pockets.

But the 184-day event also revived real estate in the Warehouse District and lower Central Business District, a move still praised by people today.

Next May marks the 20th anniversary of the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition in New Orleans. The seeds it planted still bear fruit as evidenced by the new hotels and museums sprouting up across the Warehouse District.

The World's Fair had really made that neighborhood apparent as the next up-and-coming area for urban renewal, said Karin Giger, a business consultant who was the fair's director of entertainment.

The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center's first phase, the Riverwalk and renovations to vacant buildings such as the Federal Fibre Mills and Generations Hall were an immediate result of the fair.

Hotels, apartments, condominiums, restaurants, art galleries and other businesses grew in the years following the fair, which wrought a change in perception about the area and brought millions of dollars invested in infrastructure needs for the fair.

Warehouse District occupancy was nonexistent before the fair, compared with probably 98% today, said Jim Amdal, a board member of the Warehouse Area Business Alliance and a resident of the district.

Prior to the fair, the Warehouse District was a total wino district, Giger said. And no one would have been bringing families to that neighborhood. So what the World's Fair did was it made it safe to come downtown to the Warehouse District, which no one had even known about before.

The fair drew people to the riverfront and opened their eyes to sights and sounds from across the world displayed in pavilions and exhibits.

The event also revealed the potential in the Warehouse District, Giger said. About 82 acres of land along the Warehouse District near the riverfront, from around Poydras Street to the Crescent City Connection, served as the fair site.

Private property owners leased land to the fair expecting it to be renovated and returned in a restored form, said Allen Eskew, an architect and the fair's project director who worked with Perez Associates, the New Orleans firm in charge of crafting the fair's master plan.

The master plan called for the fair to hasten the rejuvenation of a historically important and long-neglected part of the city's core. The Exposition is expected to produce a number of permanent on-site improvements in addition to the (Convention Center). These include development of the long-planned Lafayette Street and Fulton Street Malls; projects that will spur new commercial and retail development of the downtown area south of Poydras Street, the plan said.

Gary Elkins, a young partner with the New Orleans law firm of Barham and Churchill when the fair opened, was instrumental in gathering enough leases from property owners in late 1982 and 1983 to bring the fair to New Orleans. Barham and Churchill negotiated and drafted the leases needed to acquire the fair site.

The firm literally knocked on doors of dozens of property owners, Elkins said.

About 150 parcels of land were leased for the fair, said Jim Brandt, director of planning.

Owners were paid not a significant sum, Elkins said. Rents were already low in the blighted area. But there were cases where businesses were required to relocate and people would negotiate for relocation payments.

If landowners weren't paid rent by the fair, they received building improvements such as new roofs, he said.

Pres Kabacoff of Historic Restorations Inc. Properties of New Orleans was one of the pioneers of the Warehouse District's residential development. He bought the Federal Fibre Mills, 1107 S. Peters St., which he leased to the fair at the time of purchase.

During the fair, the multistory building was used as Jed's Lookout, a German beer garden, and a Louisiana folk-life venue.

Kabacoff eventually converted the building into 130 apartments and invested $16 million in the project. Five years later the apartments became condominiums and were purchased by an investment group.

Kabacoff, who moved into the Fibre Mills after the fair, still owns property there.

Amdal said tax credits to renovate historic structures helped draw investors and developers like Kabacoff to the Warehouse District after the fair closed. Many paying high rents downtown saw the opportunity to buy a cheaper piece of property in the up-and-coming Warehouse District, Amdal said.

So, it was a hell of a deal, and they were smart enough to recognize it, he said. Had it not been for that investment tax credit, I think a lot of what you see today would never have happened.