B.W. Cooper Resident Management Corporation and KBK Enterprises selected Gibbs Construction as their general contractor to revitalize and redevelop the Katrina-ravaged B.W. Cooper Community. This project remains the largest unshared project completed in company history at just over $100 million.
Located near the heart of New Orleans and now coined Marrero Commons, the former BW Cooper Housing Development was partially demolished and replaced with a new ground-up mixed-income community. This multi-phased project included affordable public housing of varied apartment sizes in garden-style townhomes and a management office housing a daycare and a community center.
Construction began with infrastructure redevelopment encompassing 16 city blocks which included new underground sewerage, water and electrical utilities, road sub-base and paving, site drainage and landscaping. The magnitude of this project, 175 individual structures containing 410 separate living units, required 932,000 man hours, 13 job-specific Gibbs staff members, and 80 subcontractor and vendor contracts over three phases of work spanning 1,234 days.
The New Orleans vernacular architectural style neighborhood features improved underground utilities, a walkable neighborhood with new sidewalks, secured parking, and multiple playgrounds. The townhomes feature market-rate interiors and amenities.
Marrero Commons required a general contractor with extensive municipal knowledge to facilitate construction and join the public-private-community partnership including the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO), the City of New Orleans, the State of Louisiana, developers McCormack Baron Salazar, Inc. and KBK Enterprises, U.S. Bancorp CDC, the Industrial Development Board of New Orleans, Louisiana Office of Community Development, Urban Strategies, Inc., and the BW Cooper/Marrero Commons Resident Management Corporation.
Marrero Commons now provides Orleans Parish with a much-needed remediated public housing option. With good fortune, we have since had the opportunity to construct the new public pool and gymnasium at the neighboring Rosenwald Center.