New Orleans, LA — The Louisiana Housing Corporation (LHC), alongside other partners, breaks ground on a historic 90-year site as an adaptive reuse development project to eventually become an affordable housing facility for senior citizens.
Located in Algiers, the Touro Shakspeare renovation will include 52 units, designated for residents at 62 and older with incomes at or below 50% of the Area Median Income (AMI). The $26M project will also include a community room for residents, courtyards with ample green space, and storm-related resiliency features.
Most people know the building with the Touro Shakspeare Home, which operated as an almshouse and senior care facility in Algiers. The building was originally constructed in 1933 and served senior citizens until Hurricane Katrina forced the building to close its doors. Since then, the building has remained vacant and deteriorated, becoming an eyesore for residents and nearby neighborhoods.
By providing funding to preserve this historic property and to increase affordable housing opportunities, LHC awarded $16 million in Multifamily Housing Revenue Bonds and $982,554 in Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). The project was also a recipient of LHC's Prime-3 Program, resulting in over $5M in Community Development Block Grant funds, which is in collaboration with the Louisiana Office of Community Development Disaster Recovery.
“The Touro Shakspeare project exemplifies the LHC mission in providing safe, affordable, and energy-efficient housing to Louisiana senior citizens,” said LHC Executive Director Kevin Delahoussaye. “Through our partnership with the Office of Community Development, we were able to award sufficient funds through our PRIME-3 program to assist hurricane-impacted areas in recovering rental housing. We are excited to see progress being made in New Orleans.”
"Touro Shakspeare represents the kind of thoughtful, community-driven development that creates a lasting impact through historic preservation," said HRI Communities President Josh Collen. "This project delivers high-quality homes for seniors while reinforcing the fabric of the surrounding neighborhood, made possible through strong public-private collaboration. We’re proud to see this milestone move from vision to reality and to continue advancing housing solutions with economic development results."
The Touro Shakspeare project was originally done in two phases. The first phase focused on stabilizing the historic building to address life-safety and structural issues. The second phase honed in on rehabilitating the 72,000-square-foot building to serve low-income seniors as it was originally built for.
“The Touro-Shakspeare redevelopment reflects our commitment to pairing disaster recovery with long-term community benefit,” said Gina Campo, executive director of the Louisiana Office of Community Development. “By investing in the adaptive reuse of this historic landmark, we are preserving an important piece of New Orleans’ history while delivering resilient, affordable housing for seniors. This project shows what is possible when strong partnerships align recovery dollars with local priorities.”
Construction of the Touro Shakspeare is set to finish in early 2027.
Contributing partners of the project include Landis Construction as the Design-Build Contractor, HCI Architecture, Inc. as the architect, Boston Capital Finance, First Horizon Bank, Stonehenge Capital, the City of New Orleans, and the Finance Authority of New Orleans.
To learn more about the Touro Shakspeare, please visit HRI's Website.
