On Fighting Climate Change

The haze that’s settled over much of the Northeast the past couple of days underscores the ill effects of climate change. One New Orleans neighborhood that Hurricane Katrina walloped in 2005 serves as an example of how to combat those ill effects. Come along for a deep dive into what the public and private sectors have done right in Gentilly. Also, how hot is the market for industrial space? A developer is about to pave over a water park in Southern California and put up a warehouse.

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— Tom Acitelli, Co-Deputy Editor

Resilience Playbook in Gentilly Offers Model for Flood-Prone Cities

The New Orleans residential neighborhood of Gentilly, on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain, is bracketed by water on three sides, with bayous and canals snaking along the neighborhood’s edges. Because of its proximity to the water, the low-lying region of the city was swallowed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Stories abound of the neighborhood being under water for months after the initial storm, of frantic residents escaping to higher ground, and not coming back for years, if ever. And, yet, 18 years after one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history, Gentilly is actually well positioned to withstand further damage, even as it confronts rising sea levels and stronger storms. That’s thanks to the city’s aggressive resilience measures, which may serve as a model for other cities around the world.

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SoCal Developer Plans Water Park to Warehouse Conversion in Inland Empire

A development and investment firm plans to pave over a water park and put up a distribution facility in Southern California’s Inland Empire. North Palisade Partners announced Tuesday that it acquired the nearly 17-acre site of the defunct Splash Kingdom for $44.5 million, with plans to transform it into a Class A industrial warehouse. The property at 1101 California Street in Redlands, Calif., is in the eastern part of the Inland Empire, which had an industrial vacancy rate of 1.7 percent at the end of the first quarter this year. “Demand for larger blocks of functional industrial space across Southern California remains strong and competition for sites in the Inland Empire is fierce,” said Joe Mishurda, founder and managing partner of Los Angeles-based North Palisade Partners. “We plan to redevelop the former Splash Kingdom water park that was vacated five years ago into a warehouse distribution building to meet demand from a variety of users.”

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