Avoided downtown New Orleans recently? You

On paper, New Orleans’ post-pandemic office market is healthier than many around the country. Occupancy, though slightly down in 2023 over the previous year, still hovers around 80% and rental rates are actually up.  But occupancy rates don’t tell the whole story. More than 1 million square feet of high-rise office space in the CBD has been taken off the market over the past year, and even buildings that are leased have fewer workers coming in every day. 

It’s hard to say for sure how many people are actually working in offices these days. But parking garage swipes at two high-rise towers, 650 Poydras and 400 Poydras, shows that 17% fewer people swiped into the garages on a recent week in March than the same week in March 2019, according to Cres Gardner with Beau Box Commercial Realty, who manages the buildings.

On Friday, swipes were 20% lower than five years ago.

“That is consistent with hybrid work schedules, which have people in the offices Tuesday through Thursday,” Gardner said. “Mondays and Fridays, they work from home.”

COVID was different

Restaurants are feeling the effects. High-end establishments like Luke and Herbsaint stay busy, thanks to a mix of power brokers, tourists and dinner crowds that come from all over. It’s a different story for casual lunch spots like the Empire State Deli, which has served lunch in the Hancock Whitney building since 2004.

New York-native Paul Tufaro opened the deli after coming to New Orleans to study jazz at UNO in the 1990s. He’s weathered a lot of ups and downs, including Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. COVID has been different.

“A lot of things cleared out this building a number of times and we survived them all,” he said. “Since the pandemic, though, regulars only come in once a week. Most days, I only have three or four tables. I used to be packed.”

Mike Serio still packs his St. Charles Avenue po-boy shop in the CBD most days. But about 75% of his business now comes from tourists, with locals making up the other 25%, he said. It used to be the other way around.

“I miss my regulars,” said Serio, whose restaurant has been a fixture in the CBD since 1958. “So many people I know say, ‘I don’t go downtown anymore. I haven’t been downtown in years.’ I’m sick of people saying that.”

Ongoing change

Of course, the regulars have been leaving downtown since long before COVID. As the city’s economic fortunes have changed in recent decades, businesses in the CBD have closed, or relocated to larger cities or less expensive suburban offices. Mid-rise offices have become hotels and condos. Along the way, small businesses built for a 20th-century economy have been disrupted or become obsolete.

Wayne Chambliss had a thriving pre-print business in the 1990s that handled campaigns for big advertising agencies and annual reports for all the major local banks once headquartered here. When graphic design work digitized, he closed the company and opened a Sir Speedy print shop outlet on Carondelet Street.

Today, the store prints signs, brochures and other materials for what is now a mostly convention-based clientele.

“We don’t have enough local business to keep us busy,” said Chambliss. “When the convention hotels are busy, we’re busy.” 

In some ways, the streets in front of his shop have more foot traffic than 20 years ago. There are more tourists and hotels, and many of the older buildings that were dying in the early 2000s were converted to apartments and are now short-term rentals, he said.

But he said there’s also more crime and people asking for spare change.

“I don’t like people just hanging out and panhandling,” he said. “I can’t have that in front of my business.”

Inherent challenges

Merritt Lane is a longtime business owner in the CBD whose company, Canal Barge, could be based anywhere. It has 25 offices in the U.S. and nearly $500 million in revenues as one of the country’s largest barge operators. But Lane chooses to remain in the historic building on Union Street that the company bought and renovated in 1980 because he believes it’s good for the city.

“Even though we are an international business, we are very much a New Orleans-based company and New Orleans is at the center of our ethos,” he said.

Still, he acknowledged that there are challenges to being downtown. Parking is expensive. He echoed Chambliss’ public safety concerns. And the CBD simply doesn’t look as clean as it should, he said.

“Post COVID, it has changed a lot and the vibrancy hasn’t returned,” said Lane. “There are still some things that are very attractive about being downtown, but I think many of us would wish for a cleaner, safer CBD.”

The Downtown Development District took several measures in 2023 to clean up downtown streets and address public safety concerns. It created a downtown ranger program that does patrols, hired a private security firm, installed more crime cameras and created a new Public Safety Alliance to coordinate efforts. The agency also provides police details downtown, who respond to 20 incidents a day on average.

“In terms of public safety, we are all hands on deck,” DDD spokesperson Ashley Mills said.

The agency also hired a new contractor in 2023 to better clean city sidewalks and streets, and is working on a campaign to get office workers and locals in general downtown again.

Lane said it’s important that the CBD “stay strong,” and that his company is committed to staying. It’s too soon to say if others will follow.

“I think things go in cycles and ebb and flow,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a straight trajectory. But it’s hard to predict what will happen.”