By: Andrew Valenti, Reporter January 21, 2022
The renovated Frenchmen Hotel is set to reopen soon.
Its new owner, Robert Thompson, confirmed the 27-room hotel has scheduled a grand opening on Feb. 1 after undergoing six months of renovations. The property at 417 Frenchmen St. is at the foot of the thoroughfare near Esplanade Avenue and not far from the various music clubs that have reopened since the COVID-19 pandemic shut them nearly two years ago.
Thompson, a Mississippi native who moved to New Orleans last year to be closer to his business ventures, purchased the hotel last year and said his development team spent $4.5 million on rehabilitation. Some of the changes include new bathrooms and vintage décor and designs in the hotel rooms, new plaster and motorized equipment for the pool and a fresh coat of paint on the interior and exterior of the property.
The 27-room count includes four suites. While there were no structural changes to the rooms’ configurations, Thompson said the number of beds at the property has increased, with an additional bed in each suite.
The Frenchmen Hotel
Opening February 2022
The biggest changes guests will see are a reworked and renovated rooftop bar, along with the hotel’s new bar on the ground floor, Midnight Revival, that offer traditional cocktails such as a Mai Tai and a Sazerac as well as drinks unique to the space.
Thompson said the Midnight Revival will also function as a live entertainment space that could host up to 300 people.
“We want to keep the authenticity and consistency that makes Frenchmen Street so special in the eyes of locals and the tourists that know about it,” he said.
Tyler Robinson, an agent with SVN | Urban Properties who represented Thompson in the Frenchmen Hotel transaction, said the reimagined property will play well with the thoroughfare’s mainstays such as The Maison, Snug Harbor and d.b.a while offering something slightly different.
The Frenchmen Hotel’s music venue will include a covered outdoor area with a craft cocktail menu that not many nearby businesses have.
The majority of music and entertainment venues on Frenchmen Street have reopened, and “The feeling I get is that there’s a beginning of a revival on Frenchmen Street,” he said.
The development was expected to open in the fourth quarter of last year, but Hurricane Ida caused labor shortages and material delays that put the project behind schedule by a month.
The property was built in 1860 as a set of cottages and spent some time as a bordello before becoming a hotel. Thompson purchased the property on June 3 through his company, Angevin & Co., from local developer Zach Kupperman.
A 25-year veteran of the hospitality industry who created the now-defunct Punch Bowl Social in Denver, Colorado, Thompson’s acquisition of the Frenchmen Hotel was the first in his expanding New Orleans portfolio.
Along with Cleveland-based historic redevelopment firm GBX Group, he acquired the Whitney Hotel at 610 Poydras St. in December for $16.9 million from New Orleans hotelier Joe Jaeger. Thompson said the development team will partner with Denver-based FAM Design on renovating the hotel and add a restaurant, a craft cocktail bar and a flower shop.
