2025

30 January

A new $575 million Omni hotel in New Orleans Warehouse District approved by Convention Center.

The 1,000-room hotel would rise 300 feet on the site of the old Sugar Mill site on Convention Center Blvd.

The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center board moved forward Thursday with its long-planned $575 million “headquarters” hotel, approving a deal with operator Omni Hotels & Resorts for a design that would include a 300-foot tower in the Warehouse District.

If approved by the City Council, the 1,000-room hotel would be the largest built in New Orleans in nearly half-a-century. The convention center’s leaders have called for years for a new hotel attached to the center, which they’ve argued is necessary to compete with cities like Austin, Nashville and Orlando to bring in new conventions.

2025

03 January

Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority Approves Development Agreement with Omni Hotels & Resorts Projected to Have $213.6 Million Annual Economic Impact

NEW ORLEANS, LA, January 31, 2025: On January 30, 2025, The Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority (the Authority) approved a headquarters hotel development agreement and ground lease agreement with Omni Hotels & Resorts (Omni) to develop a 1,000-room headquarters hotel projected to be transformative for the city, region and state. These agreements allow Omni to move forward with development as owner and operator of a headquarters hotel across the street from the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. In addition, Omni presented renderings of the new hotel and revealed the logo and name as the Omni New Orleans.

2024

06 December

A depiction of the proposed hotel for The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans

(Courtesy Omni Hotels & Resorts)

Guest column: Why the Warehouse District doesn’t need the convention center hotel BY MARY R. ARNO

Toward the end of his career, controversial New York City planner Robert Moses had a crack at New Orleans.

As a state consultant, he proposed a highway slashing through the French Quarter, from Elysian Fields to Calliope Street. Had it happened, the Riverfront Expressway would have meant no Moon Walk, Woldenberg Park, Spanish Plaza or riverfront streetcar line. The Audubon Aquarium would likely be elsewhere — or nowhere. Likewise the 1984 World’s Fair, which began the revitalization of the Warehouse District. …

2024

11 October

The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans

(Photo by Matthew Perschall, The Times-Picayune)

New Orleans Convention Center’s ‘headquarters hotel’ plan rankles Warehouse District residents

The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s leaders, fearing competition from other cities for major events, are now making their case to New Orleans residents for a new, $570 million “headquarters hotel” on a site in the historic Warehouse District.

The first reaction from neighbors to Convention Center CEO Michael Sawaya’s proposal suggests he has a fight on his hands.

“I took great offense to his presentation,” said Jonathan Hill, a board member of the Bakery Condominiums on South Peters Street, a block from the proposed hotel site, who attended a meeting last month where Sawaya explained the plan. “He wants to destroy the history and the culture of our neighborhood.” …

2024

19 June

HB 562 Original 2024 Regular Session Knox – Abstract: Changes the boundaries of the New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority Economic Growth and Development District.

Proposed law creates the New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority Economic Growth and Development District as a political subdivision of the state to provide for cooperative economic and community development among the district, the city, the state, and the owners of property in the district, to enhance the development of and improvement to the property within the area of the district, and to promote economic growth, safety, and development. Provides that the district’s board shall be composed of those members and officers duly appointed to and serving on the board of commissioners of the New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority. Provides for the powers and duties of the district.

Proposed law retains present law.

Proposed law provides for the boundaries of district. Proposed law makes changes to the district’s boundaries.

Effective upon signature of governor or lapse of time for gubernatorial action. (Amends R.S. 33:130.862(A))

2024

22 May

Michael Sawaya, president and GM of the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, on Thursday, October 27, 2022. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)

After years of false starts, New Orleans Convention Center has a new plan for a major hotel

A 1,000-room Omni hotel on a site currently occupied by The Sugar Mill event space at Andrew Higgins Boulevard is proposed.

The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s oversight board OK’d a new proposal Wednesday that could finally make a “headquarters” hotel a reality after more than a decade of failed attempts.

However, the proposed hotel would not be built on the preferred upriver site but on a block much closer to the downriver end of the complex…

2024

24 January

New Orleans Convention Center hotel is back on the table, even as costs soar

After several failed attempts to build a new hotel at the upriver end of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, officials are again in talks with a major hotel group interested in reviving the project, according to CEO Michael Sawaya.

2015

July

RS 33:130.862 – New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority Economic Growth and Development District; creation; territorial jurisdiction

§130.862. New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority Economic Growth and Development District; creation; territorial jurisdiction

A. The New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority Economic Growth and Development District, a body politic and corporate, referred to in this Subpart as the “district”, is hereby created in the city of New Orleans, referred to in this Subpart as the “city”. The district shall be comprised of all of the property bounded by the floodwall at Girod Street to Market Street, Market Street to Tchoupitoulas Street, north on Tchoupitoulas Street to Euterpe Street, west on Euterpe Street to Chippewa Street (extended), north on Chippewa Street (extended) to Melpomene Street, west on Melpomene Street to Annunciation Street, north on Annunciation Street to Thalia Street, east on Thalia Street to St. Thomas Street (extended), north on St. Thomas Street (extended) to Calliope Street riverbound, east on Calliope Street riverbound to Convention Center Boulevard, north on Convention Center Boulevard to Girod Street, and east on Girod Street to the floodwall, referred to in this Subpart as the “property”.

B. The district shall be a political subdivision of the state as defined in Article VI, Section 44 of the Constitution of Louisiana. Pursuant to Article VI, Sections 19 and 21 of the Constitution of Louisiana, the district is hereby granted all of the rights, powers, privileges, and immunities accorded by law and the Constitution of Louisiana to political subdivisions of the state, subject to the limitations provided in this Subpart.

Acts 2015, No. 420, §1, eff. July 1, 2015; Acts 2023, No. 212, §1.