New Orleans real estate firm buys American Can Co. complex

Jun 11, 2023

The American Can Co. multi-family, office and retail complex has been sold to Key Real Estate Co. The former factory at 3700 Orleans Ave. has 268 apartments with commercial space on the ground floor.

The sale’s dollar amount was not disclosed in Elifin’s The Pulse NOLA, a commercial real estate newsletter, or in property records,

Key Real Estate Co. is a New Orleans-based development, acquisition and property management company. It has more than $700 million in multi-family assets under management, according to its website.

Its holdings include another Mid-City apartment complex, 2424 Tulane, as well as properties in Baton Rouge and other Southern cities.

The seller, Georgia-based ACV VII LLC, has owned the mixed-use property since 2013, when it purchased it from developer Pres Kabacoff’s HRI Properties. ACV VII, also known as Audubon Communities of Atlanta, has drawn the ire of tenants and their supporters during its tenure as the American Can landlord.

HRI redeveloped the federally designated historic complex and brownfields site more than 20 years ago. At that time, the four-story, 417,533-square-foot industrial building had been vacant since 1988, when it stopped producing tin cans, and was ravaged by fire in 1989.

The redevelopment was made possible, in part, by tax credits and other funding linked to an affordable housing mandate that expired in 2017. That’s when ACV VII sent out eviction notices to all the low-income tenants, drawing protests from housing advocates as well as tenants.

Two years later, some tenants sued ACV VII over what they described as deteriorating living conditions, including reported problems with water, drainage, garbage pickup and security.

ACV recently completed a remodel of the commercial area facing Orleans Avenue. The tenants include Swiss Confectionery, Keesler Federal Credit Union, Dat Title, Monarch Title, a fitness training studio and a Pilates studio. Several wine shops, coffee houses and restaurants have come and gone from that row of retail units.

The one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments in American Can rent for approximately $1,500 to $3,000 a month.