Khodr Planning Restaurant, Luxury Apartments in Marigny

Richard A. Webster of The Times-Picayune reports that Hicham Khodr, the owner of The Camellia Grill The Grill, has recently acquired three properties in the Marigny from Fred Morgan, the rather self-proclaimed Robin Hood of New Orleans landlords who says "anybody poor I'm gonna help them," but whose own tenants even refer to him as an "honest-to-God slumlord." Khodr tells the TP that "I don't know how anybody could live" in the decrepit properties that he just gobbled up, located at 2100, 2106, and 2112 and Burgundy Street, which have sold for $362,000 to Khodr's Burgundy Frenchmen LLC. The LLC also owns Byblos and Salu, operates The Grill formerly known as Camellia, and recently acquired Mahony's Po Boy Shop with plans to expand into the Quarter. "It's hard to kick them out," Khodr says of the tenants, some of whom will be facing homelessness, "but the building is falling apart" and will no doubt completely fall apart very soon because... wait for it...

Khodr and company plan to turn the buildings into 'elegant' apartments with a restaurant on the ground floor. No word on what type of restaurant as of yet. Apparently the buildings have been already been appraised at a combined value of more than $800,000, despite the mold, roaches, asbestos, and other horrendous conditions.

· Sheltering Out Of Place: Marigny, 9th Ward Tenants Trapped in Squalid Conditions [NOLA.com]
· All Expansion Coverage [-ENOLA-]

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