A Kenner real estate developer has applied to the city for permission to purchase the old Whitney Bank building at the corner of S. Carrollton Avenue and Oak Street and add apartments on the top floor.
Whitney on Carrollton LLC, owned by Edward and Esther Nicklaus, sold the 100-year-old building in mid-November to Nidal Jabbar for $1.8 million, or per square foot, according to city records. Purchased for over $163.
A building permit application filed with the city in late November suggests Nicholas plans to renovate the upper floors of the three-story building. Plans call for expanding the number of units from six to eight and increasing the total number of bedrooms from 12 to 14. The estimated $163,000 renovation includes new flooring, crown and base molding, kitchen and bathrooms.
An antique clock at the site of the former Whitney Bank building at the intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Oak Street in New Orleans on Tuesday, December 3, 2024. (Photo by Chris Granger, Times-Picayune)
The renovation will bring back the prominent Oak Street property, which has been vacant since 2022. Mr. Whitney closed that store in 2004 and moved to a new branch two blocks away. In the years before Nicholas bought it, the building was at the center of a long legal battle and had several different tenants.
Mr. Nicholas runs a company called World Class Investments, which specializes in historic renovations, according to his online profile. He renovated and built apartment complexes and short-term rental housing in Mid-City and Uptown, according to city permit documents.
He declined to comment on plans for the building, which also includes two retail spaces on the ground floor. The upper two floors were originally built as offices and later converted into apartments.
rich history
The building was designed for the Whitney Bank by prominent local architect Emil Weil and constructed in 1921.
According to a 2001 report by the Historic District Landmarks Commission, this stone structure with Corinthian columns and two rotunda depicting an eagle was a symbol of unity, rationality, and housed a financial institution. The aim was to express “stability”.
HDLC designated the building a local landmark, calling it a “fine example of New Orleans’ Beaux Arts era architecture” and “physically embodying the dawn of modern banking in the United States.”
Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024, at the site of the former Whitney Bank building at the intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Oak Street in New Orleans. (Photo courtesy of Chris Granger, Times-Picayune)
The iconic Whitney Bank bronze and stained glass clock was installed in 1928 and still remains attached to the building, but it has not been well maintained and shows visible signs of damage.
In recent years, the building has been the subject of a lawsuit between then-owner Tommy Go, who purchased the building from Whitney in 2005, and Jayber, who signed a lease with an option to buy the building from Go in 2014. It became. This deal fell apart. Three years later, the two were embroiled in a series of lawsuits and counterclaims, court records show.
Jaber ended up acquiring the building.
An antique clock at the site of the former Whitney Bank building at the intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Oak Street in New Orleans on Tuesday, December 3, 2024. (Photo by Chris Granger, Times-Picayune)
Recent ground floor tenants were a nail salon and a pho restaurant. Both have been closed since at least 2022, when Jaber put the property up for sale.
