The $13 million penthouse sale at the soon-to-open Four Seasons New Orleans Hotel and Private Residences is the priciest condo deal ever in the Big Easy.
Shipbuilder Donald T. Bollinger bought the 4,000-square-foot penthouse on the 30th floor of the revamped tower in Downtown, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Built in 1967, the 33-story building was designed by renowned architect Edward Durrell Stone, and opened as the city’s World Trade Center. Located on the Mississippi River, it sustained heavy damage during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and sat largely vacant for several years.
The building was nearly demolished in 2010, but the city eventually chose the Four Seasons consortium to redevelop it in 2015. Work began two years later, and is set to be completed soon at a cost of $530 million, a spokesperson told the Journal. There will be 92 condos and 341 hotel rooms.
Bollinger’s new penthouse itself once served as the Plimsoll Club, a restaurant, lounge and event space that mostly hosted foreign dignitaries and business executives. The original fireplace was kept.
Interiors have been updated to a contemporary style with dark floorboards, white walls, and black accents on the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city and the river.
Bollinger was formerly CEO of Bollinger Shipyards, a company his father founded in 1946. There is a Bollinger Shipyards facility just across the water from the Four Seasons tower. Donald T. Bollinger sold his stake in the company in 2014, but his name is still emblazoned on two drydocks nearby. [WSJ] — Dennis Lynch