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WTC Execs call for Progress at former WTC building

Dec 20, 2016

Ten Current, Former World Trade Center of New Orleans Executives Call for Progress In Redeveloping Former WTC Building
Organization had earlier supported TCSI's competing proposal

Current and former leaders of New Orleans' World Trade Center organization have issued a call for expedited progress on redevelopment of their former building at the foot of Canal Street. In doing so, the Board and nine former Chairs of the 1000 member organization noted that the group had initially supported the proposal submitted by Two Canal Street Investors, Inc., the plaintiffs who are litigating to stop the $400 million project from moving forward.

"This is not a decision we have entered into lightly or without careful consideration of the facts. Unanimously, our Board and former Chairs have concluded that additional delays to the development of the Four Seasons New Orleans are counterproductive to the economic advancement of our city and state, and counter-intuitive to the World Trade Center's mission of creating wealth and economic opportunity for the people of New Orleans and southeast Louisiana," said Edward T. Hayes, current WTCNO Chair.

"The time has come to put these costly delays behind us, and to put hundreds of local tradesmen and women to work on bringing this landmark building back into meaningful commerce," Hayes said. "The proposal and development team our organization originally supported no longer exists in any credible form or fashion, therefore we have no hesitation about embracing the expedited redevelopment of the building, and the expedited delivery of jobs for our people and tax revenues for our city."

Joining Hayes and the current Board in support of new progress on the Four Seasons development are former WTCNO Chairs David Kearney, Ronnie Kole, Charles Nelson, Patricia Denechaud, J. Dwight LeBlanc, Jr., Dennis Kelly, Constance Willems, Frank Stewart and Jean Felts.

About the World Trade Center of New Orleans:

Founded as the International House in 1943 and as the International Trade Mart in 1945, these two predecessor organizations merged in 1985 and are now known as “The World Trade Center of New Orleans”; it is the oldest of over 300 World Trade Centers in over 100 countries. Notably, the World Trade Center of New Orleans spearheaded the establishment of Louisiana Tax Free Shopping in 1989, the first U.S. state to introduce such a program for international visitors, which has been used by more than 600,000 international customers and recorded over $500 million in tax-free sales.


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