NOLA.com6%
Gayle Benson buys 3 Harmony Circle properties. See her plans for the spaces. 8%
By Stephanie Riegel0%
7/22/2026, 9:00:00 AM
Keywords: Hardwall
BS Summary: This article contains 13 faulty reasoning types, including Representativeness Heuristic, Availability Heuristic, and Appeal to Emotion, with Optimism Bias as the most egregious example at 12.6% saturation with 90 hits. Analysis detected 505 faulty-reasoning hits from 712 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 24.5% and a BS Rank of 8% (19,188 of 20,735 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 92.50% of the article peer group.
New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson has purchased three St.
Charles Avenue properties fronting Harmony Circle and is exploring ways to bring them back to life, a potential fresh start for the historic area.
In two separate transactions last week, Benson’s real estate company purchased the Taylor Building at 944 St.
Charles Ave., a three-story vacant office building; the former Circle Bar building at 1032 St.
Charles Ave., which also is vacant, and a quarter-acre lot next to the former bar.
Benson said she purchased the properties because she believes that “investing in New Orleans is investing in its future.”
“My longtime commitment has been to bring historic buildings and underutilized properties back into commerce, strengthen our neighborhoods and create opportunities for growth,” Benson said in a statement Monday.
“The acquisition of these properties on Harmony Circle reflects that same commitment.”
Her spokesperson Greg Bensel said it’s too soon to say what Benson has planned for the properties but that she is “working through a number of discussion items at present.”
The acquisitions are the latest of several for Benson, who has been expanding the downtown footprint of her real estate company in recent years.
And it comes nearly two years after the Downtown Development District announced an effort to “reimagine” the traffic circle and green space with new landscaping, lighting and amenities.
Though unfamiliar with Benson’s purchase, Knudsen said Tuesday: “We are excited for her continued investment in downtown and look forward to learning more about her plans.”
Of the three properties Benson purchased, the Taylor Building is the largest — a 26,000-square-foot office building sitting on nearly half an acre next to the Holiday Inn Express.
It dates to the early 1900s and has a sentimental value to Benson, she said.
That’s because it was once owned by oil operator John Mecom, the founder of the New Orleans Saints.
A picture from The Times Picayune on March 8, 1967 shows a line of Saints fans outside what was then called the Mecom Building, waiting to buy tickets to the first game of the city’s new NFL team.
“There is a meaningful connection to the Taylor Building, which played an important role in the early history of the New Orleans Saints, making this investment especially significant to me,” Benson said.
Taylor had owned the building since 2012, when she purchased it from the University of New Orleans Foundation for $2 million, property records show.
The Foundation had previously leased it to Taylor Energy.
The three-story structure at 1032 St.
Charles Ave. is one of the oldest structures on the Circle, showcasing elements of Italianate, Gothic Revival and Victorian architecture, property records show.
It was built in 1883 and served as the offices of Louisiana’s first, licensed female physician, Dr.
Elizabeth Magnus Cohen.
More recently, it was home to the Circle Bar, a popular dive bar known for its live music that operated from 1999-2020, when it was closed due to the pandemic.
It has been vacant ever since.
Benson also acquired the vacant lot next to 1032 St.
Charles Ave. at the corner of Harmony Circle and Andrew Higgins Boulevard.
While Harmony Circle would likely not be as attractive to a potential restaurant or retail tenant as a prime space on Julia or Magazine streets, he said, the properties would be good for office or residential uses.
“Imagine a new four- or five-story condo there,” he said.
“It would be a pretty cool address.”
The acquisitions come as Benson is expanding her real estate portfolio in downtown New Orleans.
Last summer, she bought the 27-story office tower at 1515 Poydras St. across from Caesars Superdome and Benson Tower and annex, which she already owns.
Benson bought Corporate Realty in late 2021, saying at the time that she aimed to expand her real estate holdings throughout the Gulf region.
She has since made investments in residential real estate in Atlanta and Dallas, as well as buying an office block from the estate of former car dealer Ray Brandt.
She has also taken over management of two office towers formerly run by Hertz Investment Group: the Energy Centre in New Orleans and the Pinnacle building in Jackson, Mississippi.
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