A $50 million know-how startup incubator advanced often known as Newlab New Orleans will function the lead anchor tenant for the approximate $300 million mixed-use redevelopment of the previous Naval Assist Exercise East Financial institution web site, which has sat vacant since 2010.

By summer season 2028, the redevelopment of the 20-acre web site on Poland Avenue within the Bywater neighborhood will embody a contemporary mixed-use campus of the startup incubator advanced, a world-class enterprise platform, inexpensive housing, retail, and shared group areas that reconnect a long-isolated riverfront campus to the encircling neighborhood.

Led by Brian Gibbs Improvement, the mixed-use redevelopment venture companions broke floor in January 2026 on the development of Newlab New Orleans, delivered to town by a Brooklyn-based tech startup middle. The innovation hub will deal with superior vitality and energy options, and is purpose-built for industrial-scale innovation, enabling startups to manufacture, check, and de-risk first-of-a-kind techniques in real-world situations earlier than industrial deployment.

Constructing on success in cities like Detroit and Brooklyn, the hub goals to speed up commercialization, entice high-growth corporations, and align with Louisiana’s manufacturing base and workforce to place the area as a launchpad for essential applied sciences.

“Right this moment marks a defining second in Newlab’s long-term dedication to anchor industrial innovation within the area,” mentioned Newlab CEO David Belt on the groundbreaking ceremony on Jan. 21, 2026. “We see in New Orleans, and the State extra broadly, each the potential and the momentum required to guide – making this area and the NSA web site the proper place to construct a house for scaling essential applied sciences.”

Newlab New Orleans is anchored by a public-private partnership that features Louisiana Financial Improvement (LED), the Metropolis of New Orleans, Future Use of Vitality in Louisiana (FUEL), Louisiana State College (LSU), Better New Orleans, Inc. (GNO, Inc.), and Shell.
Newly-elected New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno mentioned the groundbreaking “marks an essential step in placing long-idle public land again to work for New Orleans.

“Via partnerships like Newlab New Orleans, we’re constructing on Louisiana’s strengths in vitality, maritime, and industrial innovation to assist native expertise and companies develop, whereas additionally delivering actual group advantages, together with much-needed inexpensive housing for the Bywater group,” Moreno mentioned.

At an approximate price of $197 million, Lincoln Avenue Communities’ NSA East Financial institution Flats will anchor the housing part of the redevelopment. Via an adaptive-reuse venture, the residential section will ship 294 items of inexpensive housing and roughly 30,000 sq. ft of ground-floor retail. The event will embody one-, two-, and three-bedroom items serving people and households incomes between 20% and 60% of space median earnings, together with 74 project-based voucher items.

“This venture shall be transformative for the New Orleans Bywater group and can deliver new life to this historic property,” mentioned David Garcia, LAC Vice President and Mission Associate. “LAC together with Brian Gibbs Improvement are proud to play a job in preserving New Orleans’ architectural heritage whereas creating sorely wanted inexpensive housing for New Orleans residents.”

The 20-acre former Navy base at Dauphine Road and Poland Avenue was formally closed by the Navy in 2010. The federal authorities transferred the property to the Metropolis in 2013, however buildings sat vacant and the location confronted points corresponding to legal exercise, fires, and homeless encampments. In 2017, the Metropolis signed a long-term lease with the late Joe Jaeger and EMDRC Companions, however the redevelopment plans by no means got here to fruition. Following Jaeger’s passing in June 2024, Gibbs, who was beforehand concerned within the venture, took over the management function to advance the redevelopment with the Metropolis and companions.

“Right this moment is greater than a groundbreaking – it’s the begin of a redevelopment that can rework the neighborhood and town,” mentioned Michael Hecht, President and CEO of GNO, Inc., on the groundbreaking ceremony. “The NSA web site will seamlessly mix the sensible with the aspirational, offering a whole bunch of items of inexpensive housing, whereas launching Newlab – essentially the most profitable enterprise platform on the planet – proper right here in New Orleans. We’re grateful to the entire dedicated and artistic companions who’ve introduced us to at the present time.”