"Before Hurricane Katrina, this was really quite an amazing place where there were so many restaurants and entertainment venues, and I'm so excited that soon that is what it will return to," Mayor Helena Moreno said in July, standing near where Fitzgerald's, Augie's Del Lago and Jaeger's once sat on pilings over Lake Pontchartrain, as NOLA.com reported.
That quote carries the version of West End most people hold in their heads, with restaurants on stilts and a lakefront gone quiet since 2005. As of this fall, the site Moreno was describing is formally out for developer bids, and it is a specific parcel of about 4.65 acres at the western tip of the park, where the 17th Street Canal meets the lake. The eastern half of West End is a different place. Its restaurants line the canal, its lighthouse keeps weekday hours, and the boat parade sets out from there. Over the next two months, the dates for the bid process and the dates for the lakefront social calendar land on top of each other.
The empty acres are one corner of a working park
West End has gone through several versions. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was known as "the Coney Island of New Orleans," with amusement rides and a streetcar line. In the 1910s the city turned the land into the present West End Park, and the New Orleans Municipal Yacht Harbor, boathouses and businesses grew up around it in the decades that followed.
Katrina erased the restaurant and nightclub cluster on the park's westernmost side and left only wooden pilings, which still stick up out of the water. That land then sat empty for years while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the pump station next door.
The rest of West End kept going. NOLA.com counts roughly 800 residents in condominiums, apartments and boathouses around the park, plus about 770 tenants in boat slips. On the eastern edge, JB's Fuel Dock and Felix's Restaurant & Oyster Bar sit on either side of the canal. For someone driving up from Lakeview, the empty corner and the busy corner are a few minutes apart along Lakeshore Drive.
A sales-tax split held it up for more than a decade
The western parcel stayed empty for so long because of who owns it. Most public land answers to one government. This land needs sign-off from the state, which owns the water bottoms, and from both Orleans and Jefferson parishes, which each have part of it inside their boundaries. The two parishes reached an agreement in 2021, and redevelopment still went nowhere. According to Moreno, earlier talks kept collapsing because New Orleans wanted a bigger share of future sales tax revenue than Jefferson Parish.
On July 16, 2026, Moreno and Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng announced a cooperative endeavor agreement at a joint press conference. Under the pact, the two parishes can seek redevelopment proposals and split the sales taxes from the parcel. "I'm kind of still in shock and disbelief, but here we are today," Lee Sheng said, according to NOLA.com. She has worked on West End since she was a district council member more than a decade ago.
Two calendars, same weeks
Seven weeks after the announcement, the New Orleans Building Corporation and the New Orleans Municipal Yacht Harbor Management Corporation released RFQ #4773. It asks experienced developers for their qualifications and development concepts for the site, under a long-term sublease. The bid process now runs on the same dates as West End's fall and holiday events.
| Date | The bid process | On the lakefront |
|---|---|---|
| Wed., Oct. 14 | Fish-focused continuing-education session at the New Canal Lighthouse, 3:30 to 5 p.m., registration required | |
| Fri., Oct. 16 | Developer submissions due | |
| Fri., Oct. 30 | Listed intent-to-award date | Haunted Boat Parade Viewing Party at JB's Fuel Dock, 6:30 p.m. |
| Sat., Dec. 12 | Lights on the Lake at the New Canal Lighthouse, 5 to 8 p.m.; West End Christmas Boat Parade, date provisional | |
| Early 2027 | Target for selecting a developer |
Some of these dates are firmer than others. The city's listing closes submissions at 2 p.m. on October 16, while the supplier portal says 3 p.m. The award date is a scheduled target and could move. The December 12 boat parade date is still listed as provisional until the organizers announce it.
What the rules already decide about the new West End
The proposals aren't public, but some limits on the parcel are already fixed:
- No housing. A 2024 state law bars building any residential property on the land.
- Building stays on land. New development has to stay on land so it doesn't interfere with water flow at the 17th Street Canal Pump Station next door.
- A district with a tax built in. The West End Economic Development District, created by state Rep. Stephanie Hilferty's bill in the last legislative session, is to be run by appointees from both parishes. It can levy a sales tax of up to 2% on businesses on the site and spend that money on the area or on the adjacent West End Park.
Several other questions are still open. In July, Hilferty said a state ground lease was awaiting approval from Gov. Jeff Landry's administration. No later public confirmation of that approval turned up in our research. The state's boards roster currently lists no members for the new district. Hilferty also said proposals could include a boardwalk or pier along with restaurants or other businesses. That came up as a possibility, and the RFQ's public summary doesn't set it as a requirement.
The 2% district has a practical side for anyone who uses the park. If new businesses come, their sales tax can pay for improvements to the adjacent West End Park, which most people come to West End for.
A competing idea for the same shoreline
Not everyone wants restaurants back on the parcel. The West End Lake Shore Park Civic Association has opposed commercial development there. Its directors argued for preserving the park and creating a bird island in a letter published by NOLA.com. Other residents have raised concerns about noise, traffic and environmental effects in West End and Bucktown. They have proposed green space and have pushed to list West End Park on the National Register of Historic Places.
A Change.org petition for that nomination, started January 15, 2026, showed 325 verified signatures when we checked. The National Park Service's most recent pending list covers nominations received before August 28, 2026, and West End Lake Shore Park isn't on it. For her part, Moreno said in July that the "overwhelming type of feedback" her office had received favored developing West End again, in both parishes, per NOLA.com.
The canal side runs on its own schedule
Whatever ends up on the western parcel, the eastern side already has places to go every week.
Felix's Restaurant & Oyster Bar runs its Lakefront location at 7400 Lakeshore Drive, serving seafood and oysters. The hours on its site are from a 2025 page, so it's worth checking them before you go.
Across the canal, JB's Fuel Dock bills itself as "Fueling Humans and Boats." It serves pizza with rotating specials from an open kitchen and bar. Diners can eat dockside, at the bar or in the dining room, and the waterfront deck is open to pets. On Friday, October 30, JB's is hosting its Haunted Boat Parade Viewing Party at 6:30 p.m., the same date the city lists for its intent to award on the parcel down the shoreline.
A little farther east, the Pontchartrain Conservancy's New Canal Lighthouse at 8001 Lakeshore Drive is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed Sunday and Monday. It offers guided, audio and printed tours, and the Conservancy asks visitors to check its calendar for closures. The Lighthouse is the starting point for the holiday season on the water. Lights on the Lake runs there on Saturday, December 12, from 5 to 8 p.m., with a view of the West End Boat Parade. The provisional parade route lines up at the Lighthouse, runs along Lakeshore Drive to Canal Boulevard and back, then passes through the New Basin Canal and along Breakwater Drive and the harbor. The listing names the Lighthouse and the West End stretch of Lakeshore Drive as viewing areas.
A Lakeview resident watching the parade from Lakeshore Drive on December 12 will be standing within sight of the pilings where Fitzgerald's, Augie's Del Lago and Jaeger's once stood. If the timeline holds, a developer for that land is due to be chosen early next year.
If you'd like to talk through what the redevelopment could mean for your corner of Lakeview, Ashley Nesser is glad to compare notes over a pizza on the deck at JB's. Let's Connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
