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Big changes are in store for New Orleans’ hospitality infrastructure, including a revamped riverfront and new hotels.
In recent years, multi-billion-dollar investments have reshaped New Orleans’ infrastructure and industry, from energy to biosciences to aerospace, expanding its appeal to not only business leaders but to business event organizers as well. Below, a glance at some of the biggest developments and projects changing the landscape of New Orleans and expanding its value proposition for meetings, conventions, and events.
Innovation Centers
NASA Michoud Assembly Facility — One of the nation’s most advanced manufacturing facilities, MAF produces core stages III–V, the Orion V spacecraft, and the Exploration Upper Stage for future Space Launch System configurations. In short, it makes some of the most advanced space rockets in the world. But the facility has been a mainstay of American innovation since the 1940s, when it produced cargo planes during World War II. Later, it churned out spaceflight hardware for all of NASA’s human-led missions, including 13 stages for Apollo, 136 external tanks for the Space Shuttle, as well as the Artemis core stage and Orion spacecraft.
A NASA crew loads the core stage for the SLS mega rocket at Michoud Assembly Facility, an 800-acre industrial campus that manufactures and assembles aerospace vehicles in New Orleans.
New Orleans BioDistrict — Spanning 1,500 acres and funded by $2.5 billion in investments, this campus is where you’ll find some of the brightest minds in health-related research and development and medical services. The BioInnovation Center, Louisiana Center for Cancer Research, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and University Medical Center all call the BioDistrict home.
LA Wind Hub at The Beach at UNO — The Louisiana Wind Energy Hub, located at The Beach at the University of New Orleans, is accelerating the growth of the state’s wind energy innovation ecosystem by supporting emerging companies, advancing new technologies, and developing a skilled workforce to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding renewable energy sector.
Capital Improvement Projects
The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center — The $557-million improvement plan for the 3-million-square-foot, LEED-certified center is more than halfway complete. Last year, the center received a new, energy-efficient, 1.9-million-square-foot roof, and renovations of the lobby areas, 140 meeting rooms, and prefunction areas are currently underway. Enhancements are also planned for the building’s entrances.
Future headquarter hotel — Development plans are progressing for a 1,000-room headquarter hotel in partnership with Omni Hotels & Resorts. As part of this effort, the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center has acquired The Warehouse at the Convention Center (formerly The Sugar Mill), a 25,000-square-foot event venue located directly across the street. The venue will remain in operation under the center’s management through April 1, 2026, until hotel design and construction commence. The hotel is projected to open in 2029.
Riverfront for all — Led by the Audubon Institute, this initiative will repurpose the last two industrial wharves on Downtown New Orleans’ riverfront, creating 2.25 miles of continuous public access along the Mississippi River. Designed to reconnect the community with what locals think of as the “front porch” of the city, the project will create one of the nation’s largest contiguous riverfront parks.
Hotel openings and revamps — This summer, the Fairmont New Orleans will open with nearly 300 guest rooms and 20,000 square feet of meeting space. By late 2026, both the 1,622-room Hilton New Orleans Riverside and 1,333-room Marriott New Orleans will wrap renovations of all its guest rooms. To boot, a total renovation of the New Orleans Marriott Warehouse Arts District is now complete. 