by Ariella Cohen
A Metairie strip mall is coming alive.
A vertical eco-system of hardy climbing vines and lush, flowering plants will soon be scaling the concrete exterior walls of a Veterans Boulevard shopping center. The living “bio-walls” will be the first such planted edifices in the area, bringing Metairie into the ranks of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto, where such walls have literally flowered.
“We want to show people that you can put a live, green building in a place of tar and cement,” said property developer Josh Bruno.
The New Orleans-based developer and former nightclub owner purchased the 4427 Veterans Blvd. shopping center earlier this year with $1.7 million and a dream of giving the aging, nondescript row of stores located on the corner of Clearview Boulevard a green facelift, he said.
Bio-walls are essentially gardens planted on plastic trellises and attached to concrete walls. From a distance, they appear like the furry, overgrown edifices of medieval castles. Closer inspection reveals layered designs where thick foliage grows between two layers of loosely-woven plastic screwed into the concrete wall. Plant roots reach downwards, sometimes extending several stories.
The living installations, requiring pumps and a drainage system for regular watering, can increase the cost of a building significantly. Bruno pegged the cost of his exterior bio-walls at $2 million, more than he paid for the entire building. Plans also include interior bio-walls.
What makes the green installation more than simply on-the-building landscaping is the bio-wall’s ability to filter toxins and impurities from the air that enters the building, Bruno said. “Think about all the chemicals in an office building,” said Bruno. “The bio-wall is a living, breathing filter so you don’t take that in.”
Indoor bio-walls have long been touted as a cure for so-called sick building syndrome, a health ailment related to exposure to the toxic gases emitted by chemicals found in the paint, cleaning and office supplies of many buildings.
Recent research, however, shows the health benefits may be hard to discern or even non-existent in a structure the size of the Veterans bio-mall, said David Lay, operations manager of a much-studied bio-wall at the Integrated Leaning Center at Queens University in Ontario.
“A bio-wall is a pretty thing to look at and in theory, it should clean the air,” Lay said. “In practice, you need a whole lot more plants than you can fit on a vertical wall to get quantifiable results. It’s a beautiful, impressive thing, but the benefits are primarily psychological.”
Bruno is counting on the bio-walls to raise the value of the aging two-story retail and office space, which sits directly across the street from Clearview Mall.
Though his team of designers hasn’t started working on the building’s green-habilitation, Bruno informed tenants this week that their rents will rise. The strip is now occupied by a mix of small, locally-owned stores on the first floor and offices on the second story. First-floor tenants include Louisiana Insurance; Perfume y Accesorios, an accessories and perfume store that caters to Spanish speakers; D&L Hair Salon; V Nails & Tanning Salon, Pizza Florence and Nordic Kitchens and Bath. On the second floor is EPS Alarms, Progressive Insurance and a number of other small business tenants.
The bio-wall second-story, which will be completely renovated, is expected to attract a new tenant base that can “afford the rental increase,” according to a market projection done by Bruno. The only retail tenants expected to stay on under the new owner are Nordic Kitchens and Bath and Pizza Florence, according to the projection.
The sit-down Italian restaurant and the designer kitchen showroom cater to an upscale audience, and owners of both say the bio-wall and other planned improvements to the building will do their business good.
“The concept is phenomenal,” Nordic owner Randall Shaw said.
Bruno envisions replacing some of the lower-end stores on the building’s street-level with upscale tenants, including a brand-name cosmetic retailer and possibly, a spa that could capitalize on the cleansing appeal of the bio-wall.
“The boutique places that are in Old Metairie and on Magazine Street are lacking on Veterans,” said Bruno. “The market is there and the bio-wall is a good complement for (those business.)”
A rendering of Bruno’s plans for the strip mall does not include the neon signs of the salons that exist at the mall now. Looking at the rendering, the owner of V Nails & Tanning Salon, V Nguyen, said she would she would probably leave the space when the rents rose, regardless of the “cool” bio-wall.
“We are a regular salon,” Nguyen said, standing next to an empty foot bath, the air thick with the scent of nail solvents and rubbing alcohol. “If the rents go up, we need a bigger parking lot for more customers, not trees on the wall.”•
by Ariella Cohen
A Metairie strip mall is coming alive.
A vertical eco-system of hardy climbing vines and lush, flowering plants will soon be scaling the concrete exterior walls of a Veterans Boulevard shopping center. The living “bio-walls” will be the first such planted edifices in the area, bringing Metairie into the ranks of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto, where such walls have literally flowered.
“We want to show people that you can put a live, green building in a place of tar and cement,” said property developer Josh Bruno.
The New Orleans-based developer and former nightclub owner purchased the 4427 Veterans Blvd. shopping center earlier this year with $1.7 million and a dream of giving the aging, nondescript row of stores located on the corner of Clearview Boulevard a green facelift, he said.
Bio-walls are essentially gardens planted on plastic trellises and attached to concrete walls. From a distance, they appear like the furry, overgrown edifices of medieval castles. Closer inspection reveals layered designs where thick foliage grows between two layers of loosely-woven plastic screwed into the concrete wall. Plant roots reach downwards, sometimes extending several stories.
The living installations, requiring pumps and a drainage system for regular watering, can increase the cost of a building significantly. Bruno pegged the cost of his exterior bio-walls at $2 million, more than he paid for the entire building. Plans also include interior bio-walls.
What makes the green installation more than simply on-the-building landscaping is the bio-wall’s ability to filter toxins and impurities from the air that enters the building, Bruno said. “Think about all the chemicals in an office building,” said Bruno. “The bio-wall is a living, breathing filter so you don’t take that in.”
Indoor bio-walls have long been touted as a cure for so-called sick building syndrome, a health ailment related to exposure to the toxic gases emitted by chemicals found in the paint, cleaning and office supplies of many buildings.
Recent research, however, shows the health benefits may be hard to discern or even non-existent in a structure the size of the Veterans bio-mall, said David Lay, operations manager of a much-studied bio-wall at the Integrated Leaning Center at Queens University in Ontario.
“A bio-wall is a pretty thing to look at and in theory, it should clean the air,” Lay said. “In practice, you need a whole lot more plants than you can fit on a vertical wall to get quantifiable results. It’s a beautiful, impressive thing, but the benefits are primarily psychological.”
Bruno is counting on the bio-walls to raise the value of the aging two-story retail and office space, which sits directly across the street from Clearview Mall.
Though his team of designers hasn’t started working on the building’s green-habilitation, Bruno informed tenants this week that their rents will rise. The strip is now occupied by a mix of small, locally-owned stores on the first floor and offices on the second story. First-floor tenants include Louisiana Insurance; Perfume y Accesorios, an accessories and perfume store that caters to Spanish speakers; D&L Hair Salon; V Nails & Tanning Salon, Pizza Florence and Nordic Kitchens and Bath. On the second floor is EPS Alarms, Progressive Insurance and a number of other small business tenants.
The bio-wall second-story, which will be completely renovated, is expected to attract a new tenant base that can “afford the rental increase,” according to a market projection done by Bruno. The only retail tenants expected to stay on under the new owner are Nordic Kitchens and Bath and Pizza Florence, according to the projection.
The sit-down Italian restaurant and the designer kitchen showroom cater to an upscale audience, and owners of both say the bio-wall and other planned improvements to the building will do their business good.
“The concept is phenomenal,” Nordic owner Randall Shaw said.
Bruno envisions replacing some of the lower-end stores on the building’s street-level with upscale tenants, including a brand-name cosmetic retailer and possibly, a spa that could capitalize on the cleansing appeal of the bio-wall.
“The boutique places that are in Old Metairie and on Magazine Street are lacking on Veterans,” said Bruno. “The market is there and the bio-wall is a good complement for (those business.)”
A rendering of Bruno’s plans for the strip mall does not include the neon signs of the salons that exist at the mall now. Looking at the rendering, the owner of V Nails & Tanning Salon, V Nguyen, said she would she would probably leave the space when the rents rose, regardless of the “cool” bio-wall.
“We are a regular salon,” Nguyen said, standing next to an empty foot bath, the air thick with the scent of nail solvents and rubbing alcohol. “If the rents go up, we need a bigger parking lot for more customers, not trees on the wall.”•