Top 10 stories of 2023: Capital One Tower future unknown
Published 1:14 pm Saturday, December 30, 2023
- Donna Price / American Press Most of the glass panels on this side of the storm-damaged Capital One Tower have been replaced with wooden panels. Monday, October 23, 2023 in Lake Charles.
The owner of the storm-damaged Capital One Tower in downtown Lake Charles — which had 73 tenants when Hurricane Laura made landfall in 2020 — said in a statement last year that it had plans to start the first phase of construction of the tower’s rebuild, which would include repairing the freight elevator, replacing the roof, repairing the skywalk and replacing windows.
Those plans, however, were halted in March when Los Angeles-based real estate firm Hertz Investment Group said it was putting the property up for sale.
“In January, Hertz Investment Group reached a settlement with their insurance company regarding the hurricane damage to the Capital One Tower building in Lake Charles,” the company said in a statement to the American Press. “Hertz is formally listing the property for sale and is repositioning this asset to the appropriate buyer pool with the intention and hope of it being purchased and refurbished as a vital part of the city’s lakefront.”
Hurricane Laura’s Category 4 winds in August 2020 left the 22-story Capital One Tower heavily damaged and blew out most of its glass windows. It has remained in major disrepair and unoccupied since Laura’s landfall.
The city of Lake Charles does not own or operate the building, but the administration has said the best case scenario is to see the “iconic building rehabilitated. The worst case scenario was for the building to remain in its current form for an extended period of time with no end in sight.”
Last month, the Lake Charles City Council approved the creation of an economic development district as an incentive for a developer to renovate the building. It’s part of the city’s plan to make sure the years-long process doesn’t take too much longer.
“These are some preliminary, proactive steps we are taking should there be an opportunity to have a developer come in and need incentives to renovate and put the tower back into use,” Mayor Nic Hunter said.
The city has given a deadline of November 2024 for Hertz Investment Group to repair or demolish the building before they take action.
