Superior Grill in talks to lease old Copeland's site

[edible complex]

Superior Grill in talks to lease old Copeland's site
by Emilie Bahr Staff Writer/CityBusiness

NEW ORLEANS — The former Copeland's restaurant at St. Charles and Napoleon avenues that's been empty for more than three years could be back in use again soon.

The owners of Superior Grill plan to lease the property from the Copeland family and turn it into a seafood restaurant. The project has been under review by city planning officials, including members of the Historic District Landmarks Commission.

City Councilwoman Stacy Head hosted a neighborhood meeting on the project last week at the nearby Academy of the Sacred Heart school, where she said renderings were put on display and the audience was overwhelmingly supportive.

Head said plans call for a "major overhaul" of the building's façade to create what she described as an "attractive, nice scale, two-story building."

The restaurant will be a New Orleans-style family seafood restaurant, she said, offering a kids’ menu, patio dining and a second story for use during Mardi Gras parades.

Superior Grill representatives declined to comment for this story, citing ongoing negotiations. The seafood restaurant would be a new concept for the restaurant group that includes Mexican and steak restaurants in Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Birmingham, Ala., and just down St. Charles Avenue from the Copeland's site.

Al Copeland Jr., through a spokesperson, also declined to comment.

Developers are scheduled to appear Friday before the Historic District Landmarks Commission for conceptual approval, HDLC Deputy Director Eleanor Burke said. The project would then go before the city Safety and Permits Office for review.

Councilwoman Head cheered the plans which would overhaul the pink building that has been boarded up and virtually untouched since 2005, save for the attention paid by the occasional graffiti artist or political campaign.

"I have received many complaints about this corner since I took office," she said. "I am delighted that a current New Orleans business is expanding to develop a restaurant on St. Charles Avenue.

"Other than Louisiana Avenue and St. Charles, this was the last undeveloped (or) underdeveloped corner on our historic avenue. And I am hopeful that the Louisiana corner will see additional investment in the near future now that Borders is near opening.”

The Borders bookstore chain has renovated the former Bultman Funeral Home at St. Charles and Louisiana avenues and is expected to open before the end of the year.

Check back for additional updates to this story throughout the day.

[Duke]

I like this idea. It'll put the place back to work in a very vibrant neighborhood.

Hopefully, they'll offer something besides fried seafood. The ceviche served at Superior would be a good starting point.

[wish I never left]

Wait, Lousiana and St. Charles is underdeveloped?

I used to live there! It didn't seem so underdeveloped to me. Has something changed? I can't say that the development that was there was all that great or at all evocative of the sense of place of New Orleans, but there was certainly plenty of 'stuff' there.

[Gourmondo]

Wait, Lousiana and St. Charles is underdeveloped?

I used to live there! It didn't seem so underdeveloped to me. Has something changed? I can't say that the development that was there was all that great or at all evocative of the sense of place of New Orleans, but there was certainly plenty of 'stuff' there.

I take it you haven't been back for a while. Only one corner (Rite Aid) has had an active businiess since the storm. But Borders in the old Bultmann structure should open very soon - today I saw the dumpsters had been moved from St. Charles and there were books on some of the shelves inside. The other two corners remain lifeless.