Meanwhile, the Piazza d'Italia option keeps floating from developer to developer, but no one has been able to work up a hotel deal that can win financial backing. Cannizaro, for one, does not feel the casino project is controling the fate of lower Poydras Street or any other projects. He predicted developer Darryl Berger's group will succeed in lining up partners and financing to convert the Lykes building into a hotel. And eventually, he said, the Piazza d'Italia will follow. My concern about the casino is that it reinforces the idea that it is difficult to do business in our state.
Crime also continues to be a major issue.
Every tourist robbery or murder sends spasms of fear throughout the hospitality industry. Kabacoff, for one, feels the emergence of the New Orleans Police Foundation as a means of delivering needed community support for the New Orleans Police Department is crucial to countering recurring images of tourists victimized by crime in the city. In its recently revised strategic plan, the DDD made safety and cleanliness in the CBD its priorities. Downtown has never been cleaner. The only economic cloud on the horizon, in Gregson's view, is the continued viability of the current oil and gas boom.