It’s one of the streets that defines New Orleans – a long, palm-tree lined boulevard full of hotels, businesses and one of the Crescent City’s signature streetcar lines.

By most accounts, though, Canal Street is not what it used to be years ago, some of the blight the result of years of decline, other damage left behind by Katrina.

Still, there’s hope.

WWL-TV

Canal Street is set for a renaissance with projects, including rehabbing four theaters, scheduled to revitalize the boulevard.

“There's no reason why this could not be as vibrant a downtown corridor as you have in Houston, Atlanta or Dallas,” said Roger Wilson, president of Broadway South LLC.

Wilson is hoping that revitalizing a theater district downtown will energize the area’s redevelopment. As president of Broadway South, he is spearheading efforts to breath life back into several theaters – the Saenger, the Joy, the Orpheum and the State Palace.

Help is coming from state-approved income tax credits for investors.

“I believe Broadway South will spell the reinvention of New Orleans as the live entertainment capital of the South,” Wilson said.

The initiative is being driven largely by private dollars. Wilson said negotiations are ongoing and major announcement could come later this year.

Broadway South is the highest profile project in the city’s official plan for Canal Street. Other projects include façade improvements, as well as investing in digital infrastructure. Overall, the city plans to spend at least $2 million on Canal Street, but the city’s financial commitment to the theater network remains unknown.

What perhaps is more striking is the number of projects officials point to that are outside of the city’s plan.

--The Waldorf Astoria renovating the historic Fairmont Hotel;

--Plans by a New York developer to convert the mostly empty World Trade Center into a hotel, apartments and a museum;

--Construction of more than 200 housing units in the former Krauss building;

--The $300 million, award-winning plan to overhaul miles of the riverfront, including building pedestrian bridges, parks and a new amphitheater;

--Plans for a $1.2 billion teaching hospital to replace storm-damaged Charity;

--And soon-to-begin construction of the Bioinnovation Center in the 1400 block of Canal

“That’s a lot of things happening around the neighborhood for this place to stay idle,” Wilson said.

Kurt Weigle, president of the Downtown Development District, is equally as optimistic, especially because Canal Street is linked to so many other areas, including the riverfront, the French Quarter, the port and the Central Business District.

"If we get Canal Street moving in the right direction, it’s going to impact all those other economic generators,” Weigle said.

Weigle said businesses have started taking advantage of the DDD’s façade program to spruce up their appearance. And he said there’s heightened interest in Canal from retailers who want to bring more upscale stores, like Saks and Rubenstein’s, downtown.

"Local, regional and national retailers have started to not just ask for more information, but are starting to make site visits,” Weigle said.

With so many projects either under discussion or underway downtown, officials are hoping that residents eventually see this area as more than just a place to go for work or for entertainment, but also as a place to live.

Officials recognize the virtually unlimited possibilities in redeveloping Canal Street. Like in all of the target zones, change will take considerable time. The revitalization of Canal remains very much a work in progress, but there’s certainly no shortage of plans…or hope.