Officials announced the planned construction of a 20-acre performing arts park in New Orleans centered around the Hyatt Regency. The plans call for a National Jazz Center, a sprawling, six-block-long green area, an outdoor auditorium, new city government buildings, a courts building and a major renovation of the Hyatt Regency, itself, according to Strategic Hotels and Resorts, which owns the Hyatt Regency. The renovation will relocate the hotel's entrance to the building's east side, and include a new ballroom and rooftop restaurant. The hotel has remained closed since Hurricane Katrina made landfall last year. The new jazz park, according officials, will "start at the foot of the National Jazz Center and extend north across green space six blocks to a new, public outdoor amphitheater."
