Backers of the Louisiana Music and Heritage Experience — long billed as a cultural anchor of the new River District next to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center — have begun talks to secure alternative locations as uncertainty deepens over the River District’s future.
That uncertainty stems from the collapse last month of a rescue deal for the $1 billion River District development. The new plan to keep the project on track had been negotiated after the developer consortium, River District Neighborhood Investors, or RDNI, missed key payment deadlines in August. Under the failed agreement, RDNI would have relinquished leases on several land parcels — including the one reserved for the $165 million music museum.
With those negotiations now in limbo, museum organizers have reopened conversations on other sites while simultaneously working with the Convention Center on a potential direct lease. But it is unclear how long it will take to untangle any legal issues involving RDNI and determine whether the museum can remain in the River District at all.
“We’re in discussions with the Convention Center about leasing the land directly, but there are still legal constraints we have to work through,” said Chris Beary, the social entrepreneur leading the music museum effort. “We simply don’t know how long that will take.”
The project, described by backers as Louisiana’s long-awaited answer to Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, would tell the story of the state’s music across every genre: jazz, blues, gospel, Cajun, zydeco, swamp pop, funk and hip-hop.
Amid the uncertainty, Beary and his team have revived an earlier option: a cluster of properties in the 400 block of South Rampart Street in the historic jazz district known as “Black Storyville.” Those buildings — the Karnofsky Tailor Shop, the Iroquois Theater and the Eagle Saloon — are central landmarks in the early history of jazz and were among the sites the museum considered several years ago.
The original Karnofsky Tailor Shop, seen in 2016, was destroyed by Hurricane Ida in 2021. It has been rebuilt, brick-by-brick, at 427 S. Rampart St. in New Orleans, Thursday, May 5, 2011. The Karnofskys, a family of Lithuanian Jews, employed a teenaged Louis Armstrong at the shop around 1914. (Staff photo by John McCusker, The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com)
“We had looked at it a couple years ago, and we’ve been back looking at that site for the last three months; we’ve gotten pretty far along,” Beary said. The properties are controlled by GBX Group, the Cleveland-based, preservation-focused developer whose partners include former Saints quarterback Drew Brees.
Six years ago, GBX unveiled an ambitious redevelopment plan for the Rampart Street block, which included a Margaritaville Hotel, condominiums, restaurants and nightclubs while preserving the historic structures. But Hurricane Ida severely damaged the area, toppling the Karnofsky building. It has since been reconstructed using the original bricks to maintain its historic character.
A GBX spokesperson confirmed there is a museum concept being considered, though he declined to detail what such a plan might look like.
“We have engaged the local jazz community in discussions about proposals to reactivate and reopen these iconic venues,” said GBX spokesperson Seth Unger via email. “We are excited about the prospect of a jazz-themed museum in the neighborhood where Louis Armstrong, Buddy Bolden and other jazz legends used to play and are optimistic these discussions could result in a plan to bring this ‘Back o’ Town’ neighborhood back to life.”
‘Hallowed ground’
Beary said the Rampart Street option brings enormous cultural weight — and complications.
The three buildings together form what he described as a rare concentration of sites essential to the birth of American music. The Eagle Saloon is where Buddy Bolden, widely regarded as the father of jazz, performed his first shows. The Karnofsky Tailor Shop is where a young Louis Armstrong was befriended and supported by the immigrant Karnofsky family, who helped him get his first cornet.
Just around the corner, Armstrong famously fired a gun on New Year’s Eve, an incident that led to his stint at the Colored Waifs Home for Boys — the place where music instructor Peter Davis nurtured his talent and, years later, also helped shape the career of bandleader Dave Bartholomew.
“There’s a lot of power in that neighborhood and in those stories,” Beary said. He noted that Armstrong played his first show at the Iroquois Theater, situated between the other two buildings, which also hosted early jazz and vaudeville performers.
Important jazz landmarks, from bottom to top, the Eagle Saloon, Iroquois Theatre, Karnofsky Tailor Shop and Little Gem in the 400 block of South Rampart Street are seen in New Orleans, La. Friday, May 31, 2019. This area was also the neighborhood of Louis Armstrong from about 1906 to 1918.
Beary said any Rampart Street concept would be built around the historic structures rather than replacing or overshadowing them.
“The idea would be to build the experience around those buildings and not interfere with the facades or the structure,” he said. “You could walk in between the buildings and see what they were like at the time and learn those stories.”
That immersive approach, he added, is powerful — but also far more complex and costly than constructing a new building on the Convention Center site. “There’s a ‘hallowed ground’ aspect to the Rampart Street site, which the Convention Center doesn’t have,” he said. “But it’s also a much more complicated project.”
Delays — but momentum
Despite the uncertainty over the location, Beary said the museum’s recent progress remains solid. Over the past three years, state and city lawmakers have begun directing public dollars toward the project, which has a conceptual design by EskewDumezRipple for a 120,000-square-foot building in the River District.
This summer, the Legislature approved $28.5 million in construction funding for the museum — a key step that keeps the project on track to raise $80 million in revenue bonds and $56.5 million in private donations. Another $1.5 million in state funds and $1 million from the city have supported early design and planning.
But much of the work is now paused while the museum determines where it will actually be built.
“We’ve got the approvals for our bond issuance on hold. We’ve got schematic design work for the architects, exhibit curation, all that stuff on hold until we know where we’re going to be,” Beary said. He estimated the delay would push the timeline back by about four months.
Still, he said private fundraising momentum — including $18 million already pledged — remains strong. “We’re working on all three options at the same time, with the idea that we want to keep our momentum going and have a location selected by the first of next year.”
Waiting on RDNI
RDNI members say they are aware that the music museum team is seeking backup options. “We maintain our support and excitement for the museum’s eventual development,” said consortium member Tara Hernandez.
Convention Center CEO Jim Cook said the center continues to support the museum locating in the River District, but cannot negotiate a new lease until RDNI’s status is resolved. “We have to reach a new agreement with RDNI before we can enter into any formal talks,” he said.
For now, the museum that was once envisioned as a cornerstone of the River District is actively weighing whether its future lies elsewhere — possibly just two miles away, in the very neighborhood where the music it seeks to celebrate was first born.