Case Study
The Warwick Hotel has been abandoned since Hurricane Katrina. The 154 room hotel, with its 1950s-era modernist architecture, opened in 1952. Tulane University signed a lease on Warwick and the structure will be completely renovated using opportunity zone money from the New Orleans Redevelopment Fund. The apartments, now called Thirteen15, will house graduate students, doctors, researchers, faculty who are tied into Tulane’s nearby Medical School.
Tulane also will be the anchor tenant of the refurbished Charity Hospital around the corner, another property that has been unoccupied since Hurricane Katrina 15 years ago and which is slated for a $300 million rehabilitation. Tulane will be leasing 350,000 square feet of space, 100,000 square feet of which will be converted into laboratory facilities, with the rest given over to teaching space, offices and study areas, to serve approximately 1,000 staff and students.
“The Warwick and Charity projects are prime opportunities to exponentially expand the university’s size and research mission, while also bolstering the creation of a robust research and commercialization ecosystem in the heart of the city,” Tulane President Mike Fitts said in a news release.
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Case Study
Western Colorado University’s ICELab is a “community organization with a keen interest in mountain town sustainability and economic diversity in rural Western Colorado.” The lab provides startups and growing businesses affordable coworking/office space as well as an Incubator Program.
In addition to serving as a space for community engagement and business incubation, ICELab is a nonprofit intermediary in applying for and deploying Opportunity Zone Mini Grants from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). Recently, OEDIT awarded ICELab with two grants on behalf of two private companies using Opportunity Zones for their community-oriented projects. One project is a sustainable hotel and the other a workforce housing development called Gunnison Rising sponsored by Williford LLC in the land use and affordable housing space.