Developers Purchase Chevron Building Downtown

NEW ORLEANS -- It didn't become the new City Hall of New Orleans, as former Mayor Ray Nagin had suggested, but the Chevron building downtown will see new life as a high-tech business center, developers announced Tuesday.

A press release from Kingfish Development LLC announced its purchase of the building at the corner of O'Keefe and Gravier. The purchase price was $6 million, according to records.

The 21-story, 380,000 square-foot office tower will be renamed the City Centre of New Orleans, according to the press release, and will "become a hub for technology based companies" and entrepreneurs. The developers hope to bring 700-800 jobs into the Central Business District.

Nagin had floated the idea of buing the Chevron building for more than $8 million last year, as a new city government complex, saying in essence that the purchase price was too good to pass up. But the idea was panned by most city council members, who voted 4-3 against the idea.

Chevron abandoned the storm-damaged building in 2008, by relocating its local staff to the northshore.

The new buyers for the building, as principals in Kingfish Development LLC, include Hugh Uhalt, Steven O. Medo III, and Robert, Joseph and Chris Bruno.

by Dominic Massa with additional reporting by Marcy Planer/Eyewitness News wwltv.com