Eight companies looking to take over Six Flags New Orleans

The current New Orleans mayor, Mitch Landrieu and his administration said Monday that there are up to eight companies competing to redevelop the Six Flags New Orleans site that has been sitting vacant for 7 years.

“We received a mix of proposals seeking to develop the former park site into an amusement park, a water park, a film [company] back lot, a retail outlet shopping center,” said Aimee Quirk, the chief economic development advisor to the mayor. Another proposal for the site involves putting in an electric power generation complex.

The committee, who is being criticized for their slow pace deciding what do to next, is reviewing the opportunities for the site. The committee who met on Monday, November 21, 2011, only met for less than an hour and discussed the process of how they will look at the proposals.

“The people who live in east New Orleans feel like very little is going on, you know, they see expansion, and they see development in other parts of the city, very little is going on out there, and then on top of that it's a huge blighted area,” said Rep. Austin Badon, D-New Orleans, who represents that area in the state legislature.

The committee has decided on looking at the potential developers’ financing on the project and past performance in business ventures. “The proposals will be scored and ranked,” said Quirk.

"It's going on seven years. There has to be a sense of urgency to get something done in a short period of time,” said Badon.

Badon did set in on the meeting and vocalized his frustration afterwards to press. “We set in there for 30 minutes, basically to say let's meet again next week, I'm tired of that, the people are tired, we're frustrated, we want something done in an expeditious manner,” he said.

Since the park has sat empty, vandals have been trespassing into the park leaving behind graffiti. The committee will meet after Thanksgiving.

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