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Rose Collaborative is a three-building adaptive-reuse campus in New Orleans’ Tremé/7th Ward. The former St. Rose de Lima Church now houses Southern Rep Theatre; one former school building is used by the Waldorf School of New Orleans; and the other contains coworking, offices and community programs. Completed in August 2018, the project combined historic preservation, major environmental cleanup and new theater, school and business infrastructure.
What Rose Collaborative is
Rose Collaborative reuses the former St. Rose de Lima Church and two school buildings on Bayou Road and Columbus Street. Rather than treating the vacant campus as a single-purpose redevelopment, the project created a mixed-use community hub for performance, education, entrepreneurship and neighborhood services.
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The New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) describes the completed development as a hub for education, business and the arts and as a gathering place intended to build on investment along Bayou Road. The Louisiana Landmarks Society similarly identifies indoor and outdoor performance areas, shared workspaces for small businesses, a community incubator and a pre-K through eighth-grade school.
The campus is in the Tremé/7th Ward area, a location where keeping a recognizable historic property in active use mattered as much as adding usable square footage. The church had been closed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, while the Columbus Street school buildings dated from 1925 and 1938.
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How the three buildings were assigned new uses
| Building or component | New use | Published size or capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Former St. Rose de Lima Church | Southern Rep Theatre venue, including a main stage and Lagniappe stage | 13,400-square-foot theater complex; 125-seat main stage and 65-seat Lagniappe stage in the Ryan Gootee General Contractors project profile |
| Former school building | Waldorf School of New Orleans educational space | Part of the campus’s 23,000 square feet of educational space documented by National Trust Community Investment Corporation |
| Second former school building | Offices and coworking for entrepreneurs, nonprofits and community organizations | 10,500-square-foot school building converted to offices in the Ryan Gootee General Contractors profile; 10,880 square feet of coworking space in the National Trust Community Investment Corporation profile |
The different area descriptions reflect how each organization measured its portion of the campus, not necessarily a change in the physical buildings. The same applies to theater seating: Building Design + Construction described a new 120-seat theater box, while the contractor’s profile lists a 125-seat main stage and a 65-seat Lagniappe stage.
What happened to the church interior
The church was not simply renovated with cosmetic finishes. Building Design + Construction reported that the retrofit required “the construction of a building within a building to accommodate a new 120-seat theater box and other accoutrements.” That approach allowed the project to place the acoustically and mechanically demanding theater inside the existing church while retaining as much historic and architectural fabric as possible.
New theater construction inside the historic shell
A theater requires controlled acoustics, vibration management, air distribution, life-safety systems and backstage support that an early twentieth-century church was never designed to provide. The inserted theater box created a new technical enclosure without erasing the larger volume and character of the church.
Building Design + Construction described stringent plywood and drywall requirements, caulked penetrations and new ductwork. Those details matter because sound leakage and uncontrolled air paths can compromise both theater performance and code compliance. The project also installed new sprinkler, plumbing and electrical systems and addressed extensive termite damage in the 1915 church.
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Preservation alongside modern code systems
Where possible, the team preserved historic and architectural elements while threading modern mechanical, plumbing, electrical, sprinkler and life-safety infrastructure through the existing structure. This is a common adaptive-reuse challenge: the historic building supplies character and embodied material, but the new occupancy demands systems, exits and accessibility provisions that did not exist when it was built.
Environmental cleanup before construction
The two-acre property required environmental work in addition to architectural rehabilitation. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s 2018 brownfields success story identified an underground storage tank and materials affected by lead, asbestos and avian fecal matter.
- Assessment: Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments investigated recognized conditions and helped define the cleanup scope.
- Underground tank work: The underground storage tank was removed as part of the site response.
- Hazardous-material cleanup: Lead- and asbestos-impacted materials and avian fecal matter were addressed before or during redevelopment activities.
- Regulatory closure: Louisiana DEQ later issued a No Further Action letter for below-ground conditions.
The No Further Action determination applies to the below-ground conditions covered by the state process; it does not mean that every construction or maintenance hazard disappeared. For an adaptive-reuse project, documenting and closing the brownfields issues was essential to financing, permitting and safe occupancy.
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Project size and cost: why published figures differ
Rose Collaborative has been reported with several area and cost figures because different publications used different scopes. The figures should not be collapsed into one total without their source and definition.
| Publisher and date | Area | Cost or financing figure | Scope described |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Orleans Redevelopment Authority project profile | 47,000 square feet | $11.7 million total project cost | Completed project; completion recorded in August 2018 |
| Building Design + Construction, 2019 | 78,000 square feet | $7.6 million construction-scope cost | Construction performed from July 2017 through June 2018 |
| Reinvestment Fund, 2018 continuing disclosure | 47,300 square feet | $7.6 million in financing | Financing description for the project |
The $7.6 million construction or financing figures are not interchangeable with NORA’s $11.7 million total project cost. Total development cost can include acquisition, professional services, financing, environmental work, contingencies and other items outside a construction contract. Likewise, a gross area, a financed area and a project-profile area may use different boundaries.
How Rose Collaborative was financed
The capital stack combined public, private and historic-preservation incentives. National Trust Community Investment Corporation documents a $10 million New Markets Tax Credit allocation and $1.4 million in federal Historic Tax Credits generated by the project. NORA provided $750,000 through its Commercial Corridor Gap Financing program.
Federal and state Historic Tax Credits, New Markets Tax Credits, public investment and private funding each address a different part of the redevelopment challenge. Historic credits help offset the cost of preserving eligible fabric; New Markets financing can improve the economics of projects in qualifying communities; and gap financing can close the difference between available capital and the cost of a complicated rehabilitation.
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Published project awards and profiles identify Bayou Tremé Center, LLC, as owner. MetroStudio served as designer and architect, Ryan Gootee General Contractors as contractor, Spackman Mossop Michaels as landscape architect and Charcoalblue as theater consultant. Alembic Community Development and Rose Community Development Corporation were also listed among the development team.
That mix of disciplines reflects the project’s unusual requirements. The architect had to work within historic buildings; the contractor had to sequence environmental remediation, termite repair and new building systems; the theater consultant had to resolve performance, acoustics and audience needs; and the landscape architect had to connect the buildings and outdoor gathering areas.
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Performance and arts education
Southern Rep Theatre gained a permanent venue with two performance capacities. The theater program also supports arts education, giving the campus a use that extends beyond ticketed performances.
School access and enrollment
The Waldorf School occupies educational space on the former school campus. National Trust Community Investment Corporation reported 23,000 square feet of educational space and documented enrollment growth. The broader program is described as serving pre-K through eighth grade.
Coworking and nonprofit offices
The coworking and office areas provide shared space for entrepreneurs, nonprofits and small businesses. National Trust Community Investment Corporation reported 10,880 square feet of coworking space, while the contractor’s profile described the conversion of a 10,500-square-foot school building to offices. The difference reflects separate reporting scopes.
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Training and credentials
Documented outcomes include 140 people trained in software development and 120 students earning professional credentials. Those figures show that the campus is not only a real-estate project; it is also a workforce and education platform.
Measured reach
National Trust Community Investment Corporation reported that 225 students were served. Together with theater programming, school enrollment, coworking, workforce training and community-serving activities, the uses create regular reasons for residents and organizations to return to the site.
Why this adaptive-reuse model is significant
Rose Collaborative demonstrates that historic preservation can support contemporary uses when the project team separates what must be retained from what must be newly built. The church’s volume and character remain legible, but a theater box and complete building systems make a demanding assembly use possible. The school buildings retain their institutional identity while accommodating offices, coworking and education.
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The project also shows why adaptive reuse should be evaluated on more than construction cost per square foot. Environmental liabilities, historic-credit requirements, acoustic performance, code upgrades and community programming all affect feasibility. A lower-cost new building would not have preserved the site’s cultural presence or delivered the same combination of theater, school and shared civic space.
Key lessons for similar projects
- Define the measurement: Report gross area, construction area, financed area and total development cost separately.
- Plan remediation early: Underground tanks, asbestos, lead and biological contamination can affect schedule, financing and occupancy.
- Design the new volume deliberately: A building-within-a-building strategy can provide theater acoustics and systems while protecting historic interiors.
- Match programs to building strengths: The church’s volume suited performance, while the former schools suited classrooms, offices and coworking.
- Build the funding stack around the building’s constraints: Historic and New Markets Tax Credits, public gap financing and private capital can work together when the scope is documented clearly.
- Measure community outcomes: Student counts, credentials, workforce training and usable coworking capacity make the civic value visible.
Rose Collaborative’s lasting result
Rose Collaborative turned a hurricane-closed church and two aging school buildings into an operating campus with performance, education, offices and public-facing programs. Its defining achievement is not one restored facade or one new theater; it is the integration of historic fabric, modern systems, environmental cleanup and measurable community use in one redevelopment.
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