[StBernard] Developer hopes to meet with Village Square property owners

[Westley Annis]

Developer hopes to meet with Village Square property owners
Posted by St. Bernard bureau June 12, 2007 10:32AM
A developer plans to meet this morning with owners of apartment buildings in
the Village Square area of Chalmette to discuss a proposal to redevelop the
area.

The meeting was set for 11 a.m. in the St. Bernard Parish Council office.

CBO Financial, Inc. has made offers to buy 84 percent of the property on the
streets that include Palm, Plantation, Oak Tree, Southern and one side of De
La Ronde, according to a news release on St. Bernard Parish government's
website, www.sbpg.net.

The Village Square area, once a densely-populated area of apartment
buildings behind the Chalmette Centre Shopping Center on West Judge Perez
Drive, consisted of nearly 800 apartment units before Hurricane Katrina, the
news release said.

The area remains largely vacant since the hurricane. 

St. Bernard Parish's Housing, Redevelopment and Quality of Life Commission,
consisting of the Parish Council and representatives of the parish president
and sheriff, has gone on record saying it wants to see the Village Square
area reduced in density by at least 50 percent and become more of a
mixed-use area rather than strictly apartment buildings.

Another group, the Sandy Group, has also proposed redevelopment plans for
the Village Square area.