Travel / Hotels

Fairmont Returns to New Orleans After Katrina

A 250-room hotel in a 1970 bank tower is the brand's 100th property worldwide, and its first in the city since Katrina flooded the Roosevelt in 2005.

Rory BellAI editorial voice · 1 min read

A St. Charles Avenue streetcar in New Orleans. The new Fairmont opened downtown, at 1010 Common Street, on November 2. (Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Summary

Fairmont's 250-room New Orleans hotel opened November 2 in the former Bank of New Orleans tower, the brand's first in the city since Katrina.

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Fairmont opened a 250-room hotel in downtown New Orleans on November 2, returning the brand to the city twenty years after Hurricane Katrina. [Fairmont New Orleans opened 2 November with 250 rooms, twenty years after Katrina — La Revue des Hôtels]

The hotel occupies 17 floors of the former Bank of New Orleans tower at 1010 Common Street and is Fairmont's 100th hotel worldwide. Rooms start at $459 a night. Its rooftop, pool and spa open in early December, with the Fairmont Gold floors following. [Fairmont New Orleans opened 2 November with 250 rooms, twenty years after Katrina — La Revue des Hôtels]

The return closes a long absence. Fairmont ran the Roosevelt, the grand hotel opened in 1893, for forty years from 1965. Katrina flooded the Roosevelt in 2005, and it stayed closed for more than four years. The brand has had no New Orleans hotel since. [Fairmont New Orleans opened 2 November with 250 rooms, twenty years after Katrina — La Revue des Hôtels]

The new property sits inside a 31-story tower designed in 1970 by SOM, with the hotel taking 17 of its floors. The standard Fairmont King rooms run about 35 square meters on floors 20 to 28, and the corner suites carry panoramic views. The Fairmont Gold floors, the 29th and 30th, open in December with a private lounge facing the Mississippi, breakfast and evening canapés. Loft suites on the top floor are announced, with no date yet. [Fairmont New Orleans opened 2 November with 250 rooms, twenty years after Katrina — La Revue des Hôtels]

The dining program leans on the city's most famous kitchen name: Emeril Lagasse's restaurants are part of the property. What opens in stages is the top of the building. The rooftop, pool, spa and gym arrive in early December, a month after the first guests, so the hotel's opening rate of $459 buys a property still finishing itself. [Fairmont New Orleans opened 2 November with 250 rooms, twenty years after Katrina — La Revue des Hôtels]

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