For the first time ever, New Orleans is getting river-front apartments that are – gasp! – affordable. The Lykes Steamship Building, former office buildings for the old steamship company, is now 52 apartments called Centennial Place. And by the way, this part of the Lower Garden District is now calling itself the Lykes Steamship District, which the cool kids will surely be calling LyStDi, or something equally ridiculous, right? Anyway, the one-bedrooms are priced from $750 to $905, depending on size, obviously, and the two-bedrooms are $1000. Points for the exposed concrete floors and A+ for the rooftop patio with views of the river. It would be nice to see these apartments unstaged, though, as the unfortunate furniture and "art" are kind of distracting. But hold on, is that a bowl of olives? And we're not so sure we would include "walking distance to Wal-Mart" as an amenity, but whatever. Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corp., a subsidiary of Volunteers of America, are the cats behind this project and they're all about creating affordable housing. They're the same group in charge of the Oil & Gas Building development in the CBD, too, by the way. Next door to the apartments is the just-renovated Centennial Cotton Press Building, built in the late 1880s. It's a community kitchen, Fresh Food Factor, that provides culinary training and healthy meals for school kids. In the same building, there's around 4,000-square feet of space up for grabs as retail space.
· Centennial Place Apartments [official site]
· Fresh Food Factor [official site]
· Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corp. [official site]
· All RNDC news [Curbed NOLA]
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