New Orleans - The Lake Terrace shopping center in Gentilly is still a ghost of its former self standing in empty silence on Paris Avenue.
Frustrated neighbors who planned the neighborhood's come back years ago are fed up. They want the property to be declared blighted, which would enable the city to come in and tear the building down.
"That is just an eye sore every time you drive past there. just glaring at you," says Amelie Oriol, who lives nearby.
Ten months ago, Lake Terrace's owner, DMK Acquisitions, filed a building permit to begin construction.
In an email, City Hall updated the permit process only by saying, "The permit is in plan review and is moving forward."
Taxpayers have already contributed $162,000 to the refurbishing effort through the city’s Economic Development Fund. They’re slated to pay a total of $250,000 when construction progresses to a certain point.
Greg St. Angelo represents the bank that's financing the rest of the bill and therefore DMK Acquisitions.
He says the hold up...complying with stricter FEMA regulations.
"Right after the storm, they were a little bit liberal in issuing these building permits. Now, FEMA has come in and said wait a minute, hold everything, you got to come up with some sort of process with which these apps are going to be reviewed and acted upon."
St. Angelo expects the building permit to come through any day. He says neighbors should look to see construction in the next few weeks.
"This strip shopping center will be built...and it won’t just meet code, it will exceed code."
"We really mean business. We're not going to let up. He's going to do something with that corner," says Oriol.
Oriol says she's been hearing that promise for months. If construction hasn't started by May 19, she'll push to have the city take over and tear the property down.
May 19 is when officials will decide whether Lake Terrace should be condemned as blighted property. The hearing was supposed to happen Tuesday, March 16, but was postponed.
