[StBernard] Sen. Mary Landrieu is latest opponent of plan to move New Orleans Cold Storage to Gov. Nicholls Street wharf

[Westley Annis]

Chances that poultry exporter New Orleans Cold Storage will get a new home
near the French Quarter appear to be slimming, with U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu
emerging as the latest opponent of the project. 

Landrieu, D-La., thinks there are "much stronger economic uses" for the two
cargo docks earmarked for the company, said spokesman Aaron Saunders.
Landrieu promised port officials that she would seek federal funds to help
pay for the multi-million dollar development, but only if the port puts the
headquarters somewhere other than the Gov. Nicholls Street and Esplanade
Avenue wharves near the foot of the French Market. 

"We have heard the concerns of the neighborhood," said Saunders, referring
to residents in the French Quarter, Faubourg Marigny and Bywater who are
opposing the project. 

Port officials are considering other options for New Orleans Cold Storage.
But Port President and CEO Gary LaGrange would not say on Tuesday whether
the agency has decided on a new location. 

"We have initiated conversations with our riverfront tenants to see if they
have unused space that could accommodate a dockside cold storage terminal,"
LaGrange said in an e-mail. "We appreciate Senator Landrieu's support as we
widen the scope of our site evaluation process." 

The port chose the Gov. Nicholls Street and Esplanade Avenue wharves early
last year, saying they represented the best option to relocate New Orleans
Cold Storage from its current home on the Industrial Canal, which has
limited shipping access. A new headquarters near the French Quarter would
cost more than $40 million to build, roughly half of which is promised to
come from the Louisiana Recovery Authority. 

If the port finds a different home for the company, however, Saunders said
Landrieu would help secure federal funds of as much as $75 million. That
amount was authorized to help relocate businesses affected by the federal
closure of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, the main shipping route to the
Industrial Canal. The only other entry to the canal, a lock that connects
with the Mississippi River, dates to the 1920s and is too small to fit
deep-draft ships. 

Without a new home on the river, New Orleans Cold Storage will leave the
city, port officials say. The company is one of the port's top tenants, and
represents an important source of jobs and tax dollars, they say. 

But that has not stopped residents of the French Quarter, Marigny and
Bywater from posting homes and businesses with signs blasting the "poison
port" and urging neighbors to "stop cold storage." Objections range from
environmental concerns to worries about truck traffic, historic preservation
and tourism. 

Landrieu is among several high-profile critics of the project, including New
Orleans Center for Creative Arts Institute Executive Director Sally Perry,
French Market Corporation Executive Director Kenneth Ferdinand and several
New Orleans politicians. 

Sean Cummings, chief executive of the New Orleans Building Corporation, the
city agency in charge of the Reinventing the Crescent plan to redesign the
Mississippi riverfront, has wavered on the subject. Cummings has said the
cold-storage facility would interfere with the new riverfront concept, but
in recent months has written to LaGrange asking to collaborate with the port
on designs. 

Cummings declined to comment for this article. 

Thomas Westfeldt II -- vice chairman of the Dock Board that governs the Port
of New Orleans and a partial owner of New Orleans Cold Storage -- did not
return phone calls on Tuesday seeking comment. Westfeldt, who was listed as
chairman of the New Orleans Cold Storage board and secretary of the company
when he was appointed to the Dock Board in 2006 -- has recused himself from
voting on matters concerning the new headquarters.