Commercial Real Estate and Mortgage In Louisiana
Article Summary: This article will help anyone looking for information pertaining to a commercial real estate and commercial lending in the State of Louisiana.
In looking at Louisiana's commercial real estate market, there's
New Orleans and then there's the rest of the state. Unfortunately, the picture
isn't particularly rosy in either place, but the reasons behind the worrisome
picture vary.
In New Orleans, one would imagine that a city trying to rise
from the mire of destruction left behind by Hurricane Katrina would be a experiencing
a construction high tide to lift both commercial and residential real estate
boats alike. Unfortunately, all construction efforts in New Orleans are hampered
by the city's failure to repopulate quickly, and, particularly, failure to repopulate
with residents of even moderate income and education. There are very few people
left in New Orleans to drive retail or growth or job creation, so there is just
no call for commercial development. Bourbon St., the heart of the tourist district,
is still alive with commerce, but it was left untouched by Katrina and is not
renovating or revitalizing or modernizing through construction. This points
to another problem for the commercial real estate market in New Orleans: neighborhood
and preservationist groups are very strong and have no interest in fostering
redevelopment that might tear down historical properties. On top of all this,
there is no clear plan for redevelopment of New Orleans.
Shreveport and Baton Rouge are the other major population centers of Louisiana.
In these areas, the commercial market is relatively stagnant
because, like New Orleans, these cities are relatively poor. Louisiana is a
state mired in poverty, and, with the possible exception of oil and coal processing
and production, there is little job creation and little to do outside agriculture
and tourism. The swampy nature of Louisiana's agricultural land prevents it
from being repurposed into residential or commercial land as often happens in
other states. Oil refineries, the major industrial property users in New Orleans,
rebuilt quickly in the aftermath of the hurricane, so there isn't heavy demand
from there though there is some activity to expand the capacity of existing
refineries and building new refineries.
The housing market across the state is relatively sluggish as those who could
afford new housing either permanently relocated to cities outside of New Orleans
or already lived in Louisiana's cities outside of New Orleans. The housing
boom of the last couple years largely surpassed Louisiana. One interesting thing
to note is that the small amount of redevelopment activity in New Orleans is
attempting to account for the high proportion or remaining New Orleans residents
who need affordable housing. One prominent apartment complex in downtown New
Orleans will not only be a mixed use development, but also a mixed income development.
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