Plans for New Orleans’ Trader Joe’s moving forward despite some pushback

Jordan Lippincott
·2 min read
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NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Developers of a new Trader Joe’s in New Orleans’ Uptown neighborhood now have the green light to proceed with their plans.

Those plans include demolishing a nearly 70-year-old school that’s been vacant for five years.

The Historic District Landmarks Commission initially prohibited the grocery store developers from demolishing the old Our Lady of Lourdes School, which sits at the corner of Napoleon Avenue and Freret Street.

“To talk about food deserts, we need to continue to push our city to invest in stores, like Trader Joe’s, and other stores that have prices that our people can actually afford,” said New Orleans City Councilwoman Lesli Harris.

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Advocates for historic preservation, like Susan Johnson, much preferred previous plans for the former school that was built in 1957, and according to her, honored the history of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, which precedes the school.

“It’s very problematic because, again, a building is either historic, or it’s not,” said Susan Johnson, who works with Historic New Orleans Neighborhoods LLC. “The federal government granted that it was in 2022 for this affordable housing project.”

Developers for a senior facility, to be called the Our Lady of Lourdes Apartments, failed to get the project off the ground.

Some who live Uptown are in support of the opening of Trader Joe’s, saying the property has been an eyesore for quite some time.

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“It’s just really unsightly and really unusable,” said neighbor Gregory Moore. “We are pretty happy to have a Trader Joe’s moving in. Something that’s going to take up a really beautiful piece of real estate, and, I think, really be helpful for the people in the community.”
           
Johnson says for historic preservationists like herself, it’s always onto the next issue.

“I think a lot of our work consists in putting facts on the record, as we’re doing now, I hope, and not letting the past be forgotten,” Johnson said.

There was also conversation about adaptive reuse, which means using a portion of the old school for the Trader Joe’s, but those plans didn’t gain steam either.

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