New Orleans shipyard closes after 3 decades and moves operations to the Mississippi Coast
The twin “Bollinger Algiers” signs facing downtown New Orleans from the West Bank, which have stood along the Mississippi River for decades as prominent advertisements for one of Louisiana’s biggest private companies, are gone.
Bollinger Shipyards is closing the property and shifting operations to its larger locations on the Gulf Coast, the company confirmed last week.
The Bollinger company, which is headquartered in Lockport, said the decision to close up shop in Algiers was driven by a desire to consolidate its repair and maintenance operations, and was not a reflection of a downturn in business or any negative aspect of New Orleans.
“We recently reallocated the work being performed at Algiers to our other facilities along the Gulf Coast,” spokesperson T.J. Tatum said. “Importantly, all jobs were relocated within our other 13 facilities as we continue to expand our workforce.”
The company is the largest privately owned shipbuilder in the United States. Last year, it acquired Halter Marine in Mississippi, which considerably expanded its shipbuilding order book for Coast Guard and Navy vessels and added a large repair yard. The company’s workforce grew by one third, to more than 3,000, with the acquisition.
Bollinger said the larger of the two dry docks at Algiers — “Mrs. Jody,” which weighs in at 4,000 tons and measures about 200 by 76 feet — sailed off to the newly acquired shipyard in Mississippi. The smaller dock — “Miss Darby,” about half the size of its counterpart — went to Port Fourchon to be reconditioned, then likely will be moved to the company’s larger ship repair yard at Harvey.
About a dozen men were still working at Bollinger Algiers on Tuesday, breaking down equipment and moving machine tools and other equipment onto barges and trucks.
Writing on the wall
Gigi Tuong, who runs the Opelousas Point Grocery a few blocks from Bollinger Algiers, said the writing had been on the wall for some months. “Some of the guys who came in for their shrimp plates would complain that they didn’t want to relocate to the other shipyard in Harvey,” Tuong said.
Angela Doyle, who has been bartending at the next-door Dry Dock Café since Bollinger acquired the facility from Algiers Iron Works and Dry Dock Inc. in 1990, said the workforce began dwindling even before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in 2020.
“This place used to be packed full of Bollinger people, all running huge tabs when there was a ship in dock, and they were great tippers,” Doyle said.
“People found love at Bollinger” back in its heyday in the 1990s, when more than 100 full-timers worked at the Algiers yard, she said. “Maureen [Bullard], the owner when I first started, she married Tim from Bollinger. My sister, who worked at the café, found her husband there also, a contract welder,” Doyle recalled. “But that didn’t work out.”
Bollinger acquired Algiers Iron Works and Dry Dock during a time when it was rapidly adding repair and maintenance to its shipbuilding capability, under the leadership of Donald “Boysie” Bollinger, son of the company founder. Two years later, Bollinger acquired a repair yard on the Harvey Canal from Avondale Industries Inc., where most of the Bollinger Algiers workers are being offered jobs.
Boysie Bollinger, who sold the company more than a decade ago, recently acquired a $13 million penthouse at the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences, directly across from the Algiers shipyard that until recently bore his name.
A neighborhood evolves
The surrounding area in Algiers Point has undergone major changes in the three decades since Bollinger arrived. After a long period of decline from the 1950s through the 1970s, the turnaround accelerated in the 1990s as the second-oldest neighborhood in New Orleans became fashionable. Now, the renovated 19th century townhouses and refurbished Creole cottages are home to places such as Beatrixbell Handcrafted Jewelry and the Nomad Coworking Space -- and increasingly expensive homes.
Doyle said the changes have pushed up property values for homeowners such as herself, as well as property taxes. The Dry Dock Café’s clientele has changed as Bollinger declined, Mardi Gras World moved to the east bank and the ferry went from free to $2 a ride, Doyle said.
“It was good when the Bollinger crowd would all come in and leave their signed lifesavers hanging on the wall,” she said. “We’re going to miss them.”
