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Hundreds of Condos are coming to Downtown. Are there People to Buy them?

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Appearing on nola.com and Written by Jennifer Larino

New Orleans is known for its historic housing stock, with its century-old shotguns, wrought iron railings and inviting porches. The latest wave of new housing, however, is sleek and modern, attracting buyers to the city’s downtown with a skyline view, rooftop pools and dog runs, and shiny new storefronts.

“There’s absolutely more going on now than there ever has been,” said developer Matt Schwartz, whose company, The Domain Cos., started construction in July on The Odeon, a $106 million, 271-unit apartment building. Its latest completed development, an $80 million, 89-unit luxury condo building called The Standard, opened in April.

Downtown New Orleans has always been an evolving landscape. Lately, change is in overdrive. Roughly 200 new condo units will soon open up to buyers within a 12-block section of the Warehouse District. More condo buildings are in the works.

Experts say a mix of demand and available financing has fed the growth up to this point. Will it last? Probably not, though Schwartz and others plugged into the downtown real estate market say there are still buyers out there looking for the type of design-forward condos rising up on Warehouse District corners.  

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731 St. Charles, a new condo development in downtown New Orleans, takes shape on St. Charles Avenue, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2018. (Photo by Jennifer Larino, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

 

Prices are likely to soften and future projects will be fewer, smaller and less flashy than those going up today. However, they’ll still aim at what they see as a group that’s only going to grow: Buyers, young and old, drawn to the city’s compact, walkable urban core.

Shaun Talbot, vice president of Talbot Realty Group, has handled hundreds of downtown listings over more than two decades in real estate. He noted before Hurricane Katrina and the levee breaks it was estimated the city’s downtown had enough room for 10,000 new multi-family units. Talbot said downtown has added only about half that over the last decade.

“We have room for more density downtown,” Talbot said. “That’s the bottom line.”

 

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