Media Clips

Federal city project begins
Developers to start demolition in Algiers

The Navy has conveyed portions of the Naval Support Activity in Algiers to developers of the federal city campus, where demolition will begin this week to pave the way for the Marine Forces Reserve headquarters.

On Tuesday, the developers acquired the last of four parcels they needed to begin construction of the 411,000-square-foot Marine Corps building, said Scott Zanders, of the Jones Walker law firm, hired by the Algiers Development District for the federal city project.

"As of Tuesday, the train has left the station," Zanders told the district board Friday.

Contractors will remove concrete and asphalt parking lots, then demolish the former commissary, Navy Exchange building and a cluster of warehouses at Opelousas and Hendee streets, said retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. David Mize, who has spearheaded the effort.

Within months, about 2,500 pilings will be pounded into the ground as construction starts in earnest, he said.

"This is a big milestone for us," Mize said. "For people who are doubters, it's hard to doubt when you've got 2,500 pilings ready to go in."

In 2005, the Defense Department recommended that the Naval Support Activity be closed, but a federal panel overruled the recommendation and allowed the federal city plan to go forward, with the state's pledge to financially back the project.

The Marine Forces Reserve headquarters will move to Algiers from the base's Bywater campus when its building is complete. The Naval Reserve Forces Command, also in Bywater, will move to Norfolk, Va., within two months, while other military operations at Bywater will move to the Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse.

The state planned to sell $150 million in bonds to pay for the project's construction and already has sold $25 million in bonds. But for the $125 million balance, the state wants to tap the $415 million Mega-Project Development Fund designated for large-scale economic development projects.

House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, a member of the Algiers development board, said the fund should be available by July 1, and that developers could draw cash as needed.

Once completed, the state will give the federal city to the Navy, Mize said.

Federal city planners hoped the Navy would lease the compound. But Mize said this week that the Navy refused to pay rent during the months of lease negotiations that ended in August.

"We'll still lease all the land around it, but they'll still own the building itself," Mize said. "The Navy drove a hard bargain on that, and they carried the day.