One iconic campus. Nearly 20 acres of possibility.
Bywater Navy Yard is the adaptive reuse of the former Naval Support Activity Base — three massive six-story concrete buildings that supplied two World Wars, now transformed into the most significant mixed-use development in New Orleans in a generation.
Phase I — The Ardent residences and Newlab technology incubator — is fully funded and under construction. Phase II, The Shops at Bywater Navy Yard and The Park, are shovel-ready and leasing now, with an anticipated opening of September 2027. Phase III will commence in 2028.
01
The Shops
55,000 SF of retail, dining, and creative offices in open-air pedestrian plazas. Leasing now.
02
The Park
Active greenspace, riverfront paths, and New Orleans' most spectacular water views.
03
The Ardent
294 workforce residences bringing 800+ residents to the Bywater waterfront.
04
Newlab
A $50M energy technology incubator, the anchor institution of the region's innovation economy.
Phase II — Opening September 2027
The Shops at Bywater Navy Yard
The ground floors of the historic NSA buildings are being transformed into vibrant, open-air pedestrian plazas celebrating the character of New Orleans. Fifty-five thousand square feet of thoughtfully curated retail, restaurants, and creative studios.
Programmed outdoor courtyards between the buildings become the living room of the neighborhood — from morning coffee to evening dining, farmers markets to live music.
Neighborhood Retail & Services
Everyday essentials, local boutiques, and community-serving businesses anchored in 13-foot concrete walls. Spaces designed for the rhythm of daily life — opening onto sunlit courtyards that blur the line between inside and out.
Food & Beverage
Independently owned restaurants, cafes, and bars celebrating New Orleans' extraordinary food culture. Operators who reflect the spirit of the Bywater — bold, authentic, and deeply rooted in the community they serve.
Creative Offices & Studios
Light-filled creative workspace with soaring ceilings, exposed concrete, and an energy you can't manufacture. Surrounded by 900+ parking spaces and 850 on-site residents from day one — a built-in audience and community.
The Shops are Leasing Now
55,000 square feet of ground-floor retail across historic Buildings 602 and 603. Spaces range from intimate boutique storefronts to anchor-scale restaurant and retail opportunities with full courtyard access.
Buildings 602 & 603Programmed Outdoor Courtyards922 Parking Spaces110 Bike Spaces800+ Residents AboveAdjacent to Crescent ParkMississippi Riverfront
Bywater Navy Yard is designed around the belief that great places serve great people. From riverfront parks to curated retail, every amenity reflects the richness of New Orleans and the ambition of what this campus can become.
🛍️
The Shops at Bywater Navy Yard
55,000 square feet of independently owned retail, dining, and creative studios across two ground floors — open to the neighborhood and anchored in the city's culinary and creative soul.
Opening September 2027
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Five Acres of Outdoor Space
The Shops Courtyard between buildings, the End of the World Park, and Crescent Park on the western edge together create an extraordinary outdoor campus unlike any in New Orleans.
🅿️
Over 1,000 Parking Spaces
A structured parking garage with 778 dedicated spaces plus surface parking — one of the most accessible and amply-parked destinations in the city, with EV charging throughout.
🚲
Bike & River Access
110 secure bike spaces, connections to Crescent Park's riverfront trail, and the only development in New Orleans with walking paths to the Mississippi River's edge.
🎶
Events & Programming
Outdoor amphitheater, markets, live music, and cultural programming in The Shops Courtyard. The campus is designed to host New Orleans' most fun and significant gatherings year-round.
⚗️
Newlab Innovation Hub
On-campus access to 30,000 SF of energy research, prototype labs, and startup community — an anchor institution that draws talent, capital, and collaboration to every business at Bywater Navy Yard.
🏛️
Historic Architecture
13-foot ceilings. 4-foot-thick concrete walls. WWI-era industrial bones that can't be found anywhere else. Every space is designed to honor the original character while enabling modern vitality.
🌊
The Bywater Neighborhood
The Bywater is New Orleans' most culturally dynamic neighborhood — a mosaic of artists, musicians, chefs, and generations of families living alongside the Mississippi River. Ranked one of the country's best walkable urban neighborhoods, Bywater offers unmatched independent dining, galleries, music venues, and the authentic soul of a city that takes its culture seriously. Bywater Navy Yard sits at its very heart.
Location
At the heart of New Orleans' most vibrant neighborhood
4400 Dauphine Street sits in the Bywater — New Orleans' most culturally rich and rapidly evolving neighborhood, just downriver of the French Quarter on the high ground of the "Sliver by the River."
Bywater Navy Yard borders five historic neighborhoods and sits adjacent to Crescent Park, giving tenants and visitors an unmatched urban setting: historic architecture, walkable streets, riverfront access, and the authentic energy of a place that can't be replicated.
The Bywater
Artists, musicians, and longtime residents define New Orleans' most coveted neighborhood — a place with soul that can't be manufactured.
Crescent Park
The recently completed riverside park runs along the waterfront, steps from the Yard's front door — trails, greenspace, and sweeping river views.
Mississippi River
Directly on the river at mile marker 93, one of the most historically significant points on the navigable waterways of the Americas.
5 Neighborhoods
Bywater, St. Claude, the Florida Area, the Lower 9th Ward, and Holy Cross — a true community crossroads serving thousands of residents daily.
Phase II
The Park at Bywater Navy Yard
One extraordinary green space brings the outdoors to the heart of the campus — and to the edge of the Mississippi River. Where the Industrial Canal meets the river, the "End of the World" delivers something rarer than real estate: genuine connection to nature and water.
Riverfront Park & Estuary
Park Entry Gate
🎶
Outdoor Amphitheater
Events, markets & live performances
🍽️
Food Trucks & F&B
Riverside dining overlooking the Mississippi
💦
Splash Pad
Family water feature
🐕
Dog Park
Riverfront End of the World
🌊
River Access
Walking paths along the Mississippi
The Master Plan
19.5 acres where the river meets the canal
Situated at the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Industrial Canal in the heart of the Bywater, the campus occupies one of the most extraordinary pieces of land in New Orleans — a waterfront peninsula with 360° views of the city's defining waterways.
The Shops — Buildings 602 & 603, Ground Floor — Leasing Now
Residences — Buildings 602 & 603, Floors 2–6
Newlab — Energy Research & Innovation, 30,000 SF
Building 601 / The Hub — Future Innovation Hub, ~500,000 SF
Parking — 900+ Spaces
The Park — Riverfront Greenspace & Estuary
Mississippi River & Industrial Canal
The Full Campus
Also at Bywater Navy Yard
The Ardent
294 Affordable & Workforce Apartments
Buildings 602 and 603 are being converted into 294 affordable and workforce apartments on floors 2 through 6, bringing a vibrant live-work community to the heart of the campus. Fully funded and under construction.
Exterior facades are being restored in accordance with federal historic rehabilitation guidelines — honoring the buildings' extraordinary WWI-era Brutalist character while creating beautiful modern homes.
Under Construction294 UnitsAffordable Housing
Newlab New Orleans
A $50M Energy Innovation Engine
Newlab New Orleans is a 30,000-square-foot technology incubator dedicated to advancing the future of energy through research, development, and specialized manufacturing. Fully funded and under construction.
Newlab brings global startups, Louisiana industry, and university partners together to build and scale companies — and Building 601 is planned as the natural expansion chapter, keeping talent and capital rooted in New Orleans.
Built by the U.S. Army in 1919 and serving the nation through two World Wars, these buildings are now being reimagined for the next century.
★ National Register of Historic PlacesListed & Protected
In 1919, the U.S. Army completed one of the most ambitious construction projects in the South — three six-story reinforced concrete warehouses on the east bank of the Mississippi River in New Orleans. Built in just 18 months, the New Orleans Army Supply Base was designed to support global military logistics: its deep-water access, rail connections, and sheer mass made it one of the most capable supply depots on the continent.
The base supplied both World Wars, shipping millions of tons of materiel and hundreds of thousands of troops through its loading bays. When the Army transferred the complex to the Navy in 1966, it became the Naval Support Activity — the largest military installation in greater New Orleans, home to the Navy Reserve and Marine Forces Reserve for decades.
After the military's departure, the site sat largely dormant — a 1.5-million-square-foot monument to an earlier era, waiting. Today, Bywater Navy Yard is returning these extraordinary buildings to the city that built them, and to the community that has always surrounded them.
Aerial view, circa 1940s
Campus today — 19.5 acres
Riverfront park & estuary
1919
U.S. Army Opens the Supply Depot
Three six-story concrete warehouses rise on the east bank of the Mississippi River in just 18 months — 1.5 million square feet, built to sustain global military operations. Engineers call it "one of the best strategic locations on the Western Continent."
1932
Port of New Orleans Leases Two Buildings
Buildings 601 and 602 are leased to the Port of New Orleans as the complex expands its dual role — military supply depot and commercial cargo hub — during the Great Depression era.
1941
"New Orleans Port of Embarkation"
The base is redesignated a critical wartime hub. Over four years, it ships millions of tons of cargo and hundreds of thousands of Allied troops overseas. Its concrete walls and loading docks become essential to the war effort.
1945
Victory — and a New Role
As World War II ends, the base processes returning troops before transitioning to Cold War-era logistics. The buildings endure: their reinforced concrete construction, designed to last a century, shows no signs of yielding.
1966
Transferred to the U.S. Navy
Redesignated as the Naval Support Activity, the campus becomes the largest military installation in greater New Orleans — home to the Navy Reserve and Marine Forces Reserve for the next four decades.
2011
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The buildings are recognized for their architectural and historical significance — one of the finest surviving examples of early 20th-century military-industrial concrete construction in the United States.
2016
City of New Orleans — 99-Year Ground Lease
EMDRC Partners executes a 99-year ground lease with the City of New Orleans, beginning the transformation of the site back into commerce and community — the most ambitious adaptive reuse project in Louisiana history.
2025
$196M in Financing Closed — Construction Begins
Phase I closes financing on December 10, 2025. Renovation of 294 apartments and construction of the Newlab technology incubator begin simultaneously on the 1.5-million-square-foot campus.
2026
The Shops at Bywater Navy Yard — Leasing Now, Opening September 2027
Phase II is shovel-ready. 55,000 square feet of community retail, food & beverage, and creative offices are actively leasing — opening September 2027.
2028
Phase III Commences
Building 601 — 500,000 square feet of adaptive innovation space — begins its transformation, extending Newlab's energy research platform and cementing Bywater Navy Yard as the anchor of Louisiana's innovation economy.
Recognition
As seen & recognized
New Orleans City Business
"The most ambitious adaptive reuse project in Louisiana history."
National Register of Historic Places
"One of the finest surviving examples of early 20th-century military-industrial concrete construction in the United States."
$196M in Financing
"Phase I financing closed December 2025 — one of the largest historic preservation transactions in the Gulf South."
Gibbs is a New Orleans-based developer with over 25 years transforming historic assets and leading major riverfront redevelopments through complex public-private partnerships. Gibbs is the master developer of the Bywater Navy Yard.
Lincoln is a national affordable housing developer with deep expertise in LIHTC, HUD financing, and community-centered residential development across the apartment phases. Lincoln is a co-developer of Bywater Navy Yard and is the lead developer of Phase I, including the 294 apartments.
Kupperman is a New Orleans-based development and investment firm with 40+ projects across the Southeast and Mountain Regions, including award-winning historic redevelopments. Kupperman is a co-developer of Bywater Navy Yard and the lead developer Phase II, including The Shops & The Park.
Lease Space
Retail & Restaurant Space for Lease in New Orleans
We're actively seeking retail, restaurant, and creative tenants who share our vision for a community-first destination in New Orleans' most vibrant neighborhood. We'd love to hear from you.
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