District “D” Councilmember Jared Brossett, Providence Community Housing, and Columbia Residential celebrated the groundbreaking of Sacred Heart at St. Bernard on earlier today (Wednesday, Feb. 8).
Providence Community Housing and Columbia Residential have been working for over a year on the development of the former Sacred Heart Church at St. Bernard, into an affordable mixed-income and mixed-use community in the 7th Ward neighborhood of New Orleans.
Located within the Faubourg Lafitte and Choice Neighborhood footprints, the site will be renovated into six rental units. Additionally, a new four-story building will be constructed and will contain 47 residential rental units, laundry facilities, fitness center, a small public community room and approximately 4,200 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.
In total, the community will provide 53 one- and two-bedroom apartments, totaling over 65,000 square feet; 44 units will be reserved for residents making below 60 percent of the area median Income and nine will be market rate.
The development team has partnered with Black Men of Labor, Block Construction, Section 3 and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) firms for the construction work. The team is planning a job fair for the project to take place in March.
This project will bring critical affordable rental housing to a core city neighborhood. Construction, which started last month, is expected to be complete in January 2018.
