NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - The planned Omni New Orleans convention center hotel faces critical votes before the state bond commission this week, with hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives on the line and the city’s bid for the 2031 Super Bowl potentially tied to the outcome.
The $600 million project, led by the Convention Center Authority, would bring a 1,000-room, 27-story hotel to anchor the new River District neighborhood. It would be the city’s first headquarters hotel. Convention center leaders said in a statement Sunday that the project “has never been closer to reality than at this very moment.”
The state bond commission will decide Thursday whether the convention center can offset some taxes as incentives. According to NOLA.com, Senate President Cameron Henry, who sits on the bond commission, plans to vote against guaranteeing Omni up to $120 million in tax incentive payments and swapping 45 years of property taxes for a flat rate of $2 million a year. Henry was unavailable for an interview.
Michael Hecht, of GNO, Inc., pointed to last year’s Super Bowl as evidence of New Orleans’ track record as a host city.
“I’m proud of the Super Bowl we had last year; everybody from Roger Goodell to Cardi B said it was the best ever,” Hecht said.
The hotel is described by some as a key component of the city’s bid to host the 2031 Super Bowl.
At a June city council meeting, Jim Cook, president and CEO of the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, laid out the project’s rationale.
“It’s a simple formula — we provide space for events, which in turn drives economic activity and that creates tax revenue for our city,” Cook said.
The convention center has previously said it expects the new hotel to generate $213 million in economic activity per year — without a Super Bowl.
The tax incentive structure has drawn opposition from some hospitality workers. Monicka Bolling, who works in hospitality, said the project raises concerns about public resources.
“Here we are in 2026, and our city and state are starved for resources — working people like me are facing an accelerating cost of living — and what’s on the table is allowing the Omni project to build almost three times what they’d normally be allowed under the current zoning while they’re seeking a public subsidy that hasn’t been determined yet,” Bolling said.
Convention center leaders said in a statement:
_“We are very confident in the discussions we are continuing to have with the Governor, legislators and local leadership on this catalytic project, and we are working towards completion in the best interests of the Louisiana taxpayer, Omni and the Convention Center._
_Following the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget meeting in April, we were asked to consider additional alternatives in how the financing could be structured. Since then, we have done exactly that. Our team has carefully considered the feedback we received from the legislature and has had continuous productive conversations and proposal discussions with state, local, business and community leaders from across the region. We know we have several pathways to get to project mobilization, and it is really a matter of which one is most acceptable to the most project stakeholders._
_Since early March, the project has cleared multiple parish bodies including two unanimous approval votes from the City Council. The headquarters hotel has never been closer to reality than at this very moment, and we continue to work towards bringing the project to completion."_
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