ThePort of New Orleans' Dock Boardlast week approved building site development in the city's Uptown district forNew Orleans Cold Storage(NOCS), reportedThe (New Orleans) Times-Picayune.
The vote ends a battle between the port and neighborhood groups over initial plans to relocate NOCS' headquarters near the French Quarter, the paper said. Residents of the Faubourg Marigny, French Quarter and Bywater fought for more than a year to keep NOCS away from the Gov. Nicholls Street and Esplanade Avenue wharves, saying an industrial facility there would harm the environment, cause traffic and threaten historic neighborhoods.
In the end -- and after the intervention of several influential politicians -- the port found another home upriver for NOCS. Stevedoring firm Ports America will make room for NOCS at the Henry Clay-Nashville Avenue cargo terminal, amending its lease so the port can build a 147,000-square-foot refrigerated warehouse to be leased and operated by NOCS.
"This agreement will allow America's oldest cold-storage company to stay in its namesake town," said NOCS President Mark Blanchard at the news conference.
NOCS will continue to use its Industrial Canal facility to handle cargo from shallow-draft vessels, said port spokesman Chris Bonura. Larger ships, which cannot fit through the lock that links the canal with the Mississippi River, will use the second facility at the Henry Clay-Nashville Avenue terminal.
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