New owners of New Orleans hotel keep plan alive

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The owners of the Hyatt Regency New Orleans have sold only 10 percent of the special bonds needed to help finance the hotel's post-Hurricane Katrina overhaul, but that's enough to keep a redevelopment plan alive through 2010.

State Bond Commission director Whit Kling said Poydras Properties LLC sold $22.5 million in tax-exempt bonds at the end of September for the 31-story downtown hotel, which is near the Superdome.

The developer has struggled to sell its $225 million allotment of Gulf Opportunity Zone Act bonds during the recession and had faced an Oct. 17 sale deadline under bond commission action taken in February. But Kling said Tuesday that under federal regulations, the limited sale locked up the entire bond issue until Dec. 31, 2010.

Kling said the company needed only to sell $5 million to keep the financing plan alive. To sell the rest of the bonds, Poydras Properties must reach regular performance goals, he said.

Although the bonds are being issued through the state Industrial Development Board, they are not guaranteed by a government agency.

Chris Robertson, managing member of Poydras Properties, did not return messages seeking comment.

The hotel sustained heavy damage from Katrina, which struck Aug. 29, 2005. It has not reopened.

Poydras Properties acquired the 1,184-room property from Chicago-based Strategic Hotels&Resorts Inc. in 2007 for $32 million.