Yeah, I have to say, this sounds like a good idea provided the Saints redevelop the properties. It s

After more than a year of negotiating, the Saints bus travel europe say they have reached a tentative agreement with the state that will keep the NFL franchise in New Orleans through 2025, remove the need for a new stadium by upgrading the Superdome and resurrect an abandoned section of the Central Business District with a refurbished office tower and a new sports entertainment district.
As part of the deal, which officials said could save the state $281 million when compared with the current agreement that pays the Saints $23 million in subsidies, the state would make $85 million in improvements to the Dome, and Saints owner Tom Benson bus travel europe and his family would buy the vacant Dominion Tower and New Orleans Centre and lease office space back to the state.
The deal also would create a new sports district, increase the potential for stadium revenue and shift more of the financial burden bus travel europe on the Saints by eliminating fixed payments and reducing subsidies based on the team's financial performance.
"Our community is coming back slowly, and I think this is going to be the shot in the arm that's going to keep it going in that direction, " Benson said Wednesday. "I really believe that this is going to be something that is going to be very sound for our community."
"You had a lot of the same people in there, and our governor bus travel europe is a very intelligent young man, " he said. "He's not easy to negotiate bus travel europe with, but he's very intelligent. And when you do that, it makes it a lot easier to get things done. He sees both sides of the fence. bus travel europe They've reached some, and we've reached a lot."
The deal still needs approval from the Legislature, which will have to approve $85 million for Superdome improvements. State officials and lawmakers say the money will likely come from the state's surplus.
Members of the Superdome Commission briefed Jindal's senior staff and the chairmen of legislative committees Wednesday morning and unveiled the plan to the New Orleans and Jefferson Parish delegation over lunch.
"There was a lot of excitement about the savings to the state, " Superdome Chairman Ron Forman said. "There were still concerns because bus travel europe this is a tough fiscal year. But we also believe that if we are going to have professional sports in New Orleans, this is so much better than what we had before. And when we show the savings to the legislators, we think we will get whatever we need."
During lease negotiations between the state and Saints in 2001, Doug Thornton, the regional vice president of SMG, the company that manages the Dome on behalf of the state, proposed a deal that would have paid inducements bus travel europe to the National Football League franchise based on the amount of revenue the team pulled in.
Click to read Superdome plan graphic. Wanting a new stadium, Saints officials balked at the proposal because there were few new revenue streams. Eventually, the sides agreed on a 10-year, $186 million bus travel europe agreement that placed all the financial responsibility on the state.
Both sides managed to work out a deal that puts the Saints on the hook financially. Instead of handing bus travel europe money over to the team, the state will make improvements to the 34-year-old stadium, including substantially widening bus travel europe plaza level concourses, adding concession stands, reconfiguring lower bowl seating to add 3,100 seats, and adding 300-level luxury boxes, a new retail store, bus travel europe a club lounge and upgraded restaurants.
"The thing that we really tried to do with these negotiations was to come up with some creative ways to accomplish what we were trying to do, " Saints Chief Financial Officer Dennis Lauscha said. "There were a ton of things that we threw out back and forth.
"It has been as tough as any negotiation. But at the end of the day, we want to be here, the state wants us here. They know the gap. We had to come up with a way to close the gap. And that's what we did."
The new revenue streams bus travel europe would reduce the state's financial obligation to the Saints based on a sliding scale, with the most the team could receive in a year capped at $6 million if the team generates less than $7 million in new game-day revenue. The state's payment drops to zero if the Saints generate at least $12.5 million in new revenue.
Through the deal with the Saints, the Superdome Commission is seeking to consummate a vision several years in the making: to buy real estate around the stadium that can be developed into a sports and entertainment district that will secure the city's future as a destination for major national athletic events.
The commission negotiated for much of last year to buy the vacant Dominion Tower, the aging New Orleans Centre mall and a 2,100-space parking garage from California real estate investor Judah Hertz, who bought the buildings in 2003. The deal stalled in December after the state would not agree to a pivotal piece of the plan.
The commission had its eye mostly on the mall and the garage, which it wanted to convert into an entertainment bus travel europe district that might one day rival Patriot Place in Boston or L.A. Live in Los Angeles. It would have paid for the buildings by leasing bus travel europe portions of the Dominion Tower to state agencies that had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Although the state initially resisted the proposal to move its agencies into the tower, it has now agreed to lease 320,000 square feet inside the building from the Benson family, which hopes to close on all three buildings in August. The Bensons would have to seek commercial tenants for the 168,000 square feet in the tower the state does not plan to use.
The Bensons bus travel europe said they would spend $10 million restoring the tower, plus an additional $12 million to adapt the suites to the needs of various state agencies. The family will lease the building to the state for about $24 per square foot, considerably more than the going rate of $18 per square foot for Class A buildings in downtown New Orleans.
Yet Thornton said the agreement was a good deal for the state, which would have paid $24 to $26 per square foot plus operating expenses to put up a new building, as it initially planned to do. The Dominion bus travel europe Tower would also represent a step up for the state agencies, which are mostly housed in Class B and C buildings today.
Thornton expected that about 30 state agencies now housed in scattered offices bus travel europe around the city would be moved into the tower. Those agencies pay a combined rent of $5.1 million per year, a figure bus travel europe that will increase to $7.6 million once they are inside the Dominion Tower.
The symbiosis between the state and the Saints does not end at the tower. The Benson family also will buy the mall and the parking garage and then lease those back to the Superdome Commission, a state agency, which will operate bus travel europe them on game days. The commission and the Bensons will share profit from the property, which will be recast into what they called a "festival plaza."
Although the commission has not devised plans for what the plaza might look like, Thornton said it would be a destination for fans, with food and digital and interactive media. The Benson family has agreed to spend $10.5 million during the next three years to improve the space, which could one day become bus travel europe a showpiece that would help lure the Super Bowl and other events to New Orleans.
bus travel europe Louisiana State University now runs a clinic inside the New Orleans Centre mall, and commission members said Wednesday that the university would stay there until its new hospital is built several blocks away.
Although the deal for the tower, the mall and the garage marks a milestone for the Superdome Commission, it also could become a turning point for downtown. The three buildings sit in a section of the business district touched more by vacancy than commerce of late, not far from the empty Chevron building and padlocked Charity Hospital.
The sale, which could be complete in August, could also bolster prospects for the Hyatt Regency, an enormous hotel that has sat vacant since Hurricane Katrina. The Arkansas development team that plans to renovate the hotel is struggling with the national credit bus travel europe crunch, but Thornton said lenders bus travel europe might look on the project more favorably if the mall and tower are reimagined.
Hertz, current owner of the buildings, said he expected to sign a purchase agreement with the Benson family today. He declined to disclose the price of the property bus travel europe before bus travel europe then, as did Lauscha, of the Saints.
This is good news for the saints and the city. The plans in the above statement will really give the CBD area around the superdome a newer and more commercial look. This will help the city with tourists as well as begin a new start in renewing the downtown area and bringing more commerce and business to the city. I am glad that they are getting this done, and I am glad that my saints will be in the city for a long time to come.
Yeah, I have to say, this sounds like a good idea provided the Saints redevelop the properties. It seems like the only way we'd get this done anytime soon and it gives the Saints an incentive to make these developments profitable (read: attractive, draw visitors).
thats the best news in awhile about the subject, i and plenty saints fans alike were tired of hearing all the negotivity about the saints leaving bus travel europe the area. the saints are a long living tradition to the state and me being from the lafayette area the stories or rumers as i would say were heart breaking to the fans of this great and only 32 in the world football bus travel europe team.
So the state can spare $85mil for the dome from a budget surplus? How about throwing some of that surplus $$ to crime prevention? Maybe fix up some schools? Roads? Try driving down Paris Ave, it would be a better ride if it were gravel. While I would love to see the dome get modernized, is that really a top priority?
I agree with you that those things needs to be done. I also am in full support of the renovations bus travel europe to the Dome and that area of downtown. That attre=acts business and commerce bus travel europe to the city as well as tourists and more activities to give some of the people who comm