McAlisters and More Coming Soon to Waveland

Watching Waveland - November, 2023

There is a lot of new development happening in Waveland. Check out what Waveland Mayor, Jay Trapani, has to say about it.

- by Lisa Monti

Two weeks ago, the City of Waveland approved this condominium development at the foot of Coleman Avenue. (Artist's rendering)

Keep your eye on the intersection of Highways 90 and Nicholson Avenue. Big changes are coming, according to Waveland mayor Jay Trapani. Renovations to the exterior of the shuttered Rite Aid have begun.
 

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The former drugstore was shut down shortly after Walgreens bought roughly 2,000 stores from the national chain in 2015. A New Orleans developer bought the building, which will be divided into three sections. The owner plans to first open a McAlister’s Deli at the location and later lease the other two spaces to retail tenants, Trapani said.
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Residents were excited to see the "Coming Soon" sign on the old Rite Aid building at Highway 90 and Nicholson Avenue. | City of Waveland photo (Facebook)

 
A banner announcing the opening of McAlister’s put the social media spotlight on the long-vacant building, with fans of the restaurant giving the news a thumbs-up. Trapani said the developer owns and operates McAlister’s all over the South.
 
Trapani expects work on the interior of the building to start in the next few months, “depending on the supply chain,” he said. He wouldn’t identify the other two tenants but said they are not food-related.
 
Trapani said the Rite Aid project isn’t the only one taking shape in Waveland. On a four-acre lot on the west side of the Walmart entrance on U.S. 90, a developer wants to build a hotel. That project would “jump start the western part of the city,” Trapani said, without revealing any details. “He (the developer) is working every way he can” to put the hotel plans in motion, “but high interest rates are making it hard to do commercial projects,” said Trapani.

The city has struggled with redevelopment since Hurricane Katrina, but it has certainly come a long way since this photo of Coleman Avenue was taken in 2005. | Pat Murphy, Shoofly file photo

 
Trapani said that two weeks ago the city approved a condominium project on the western parcel at the foot of Coleman Avenue.
 
New Orleans-based developer Pepper Tregre plans to build 18 elevated condos as well as a pool, some retail space, and a place for food trucks on the three-acre site. Nine condos on St. Joseph Street will be built in the first of four phases of the Bliss by the Bay development, Trapani said.
 

Garfield Ladner Pier | Shoofly file photo

 
Elsewhere in Waveland, he said new owners of the former Hancock Bank building on U.S. 90 continue to remodel the building.
 
Trapani added that bids to rebuild the Garfield Ladner Pier will be opened Nov. 7 after a slight delay requested by bidders.
 
“A lot of things are happening in Waveland, and there are a lot more on the drawing board” that will take shape when interest rates decline, Trapani said.

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