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Beale Street Hotel Is A Pipe Dream

Posted: Aug 12th 2008 By: CMBurnham

Plans for a hotel on Beale Street at the site of the recently closed Pat O' Brien's appear to be dead before they have even begun.

On Saturday, WMC-TV 5 reported the New Orleans-themed bar had closed and that local businessman Joe Cooper and wrestler Jerry "The King" Lawler were planning a five-story hotel with 80 hotel suites for the site.

John Elkington, CEO of Performa Entertainment Real Estate Inc., the group which manages Beale Street, said there are many reasons this would never happen.

One reason is the business has filed for bankruptcy. That means anyone wanting to work on the site would have to get approval from creditors, which include Performa, according to Elkington.

Also, in order to build a hotel, a development group would have to control the parking lot behind it in order to create enough space.

Performa currently controls that parking lot and would not relinquish that to hotel developers.

"That would never, ever happen," Elkington said.

Finally, the state's historic preservation department would have to approve any changes to the building.

"We would fight any approval to build a building higher than that," Elkington said.