<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1FrmjH_1FFQDQoT00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1FrmjH_1FFQDQoT00" width="1280" height="853" ><figcaption>VPG Enterprise co-founders Michael Merideth, CEO, and Andre Lewis, COO. Photo provided by VPG.</figcaption></figure>NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans-based Verius Property Group (VPG) has purchased the 23-story former National American Bank Building at 200 Carondelet St. for $27.2 million, marking the company’s first high-rise acquisition and setting the stage for at least $2 million in initial improvements to the nearly century-old Downtown property.The 189-unit building is approximately 90% occupied and includes both affordable and market-rate apartments.“Honestly, I fell for the building before I ever ran the numbers,” said Michael Merideth, CEO of VPG Enterprise. “You walk in and you feel it. That kind of craftsmanship does not get built anymore, and it’s hard to deny the historic character of the building and what it has meant to New Orleans. Then the numbers told the same story.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2iP696_1FFQDQoT00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2iP696_1FFQDQoT00" width="1280" height="853" ><figcaption>200 Carondelet St. Photo provided by VPG.</figcaption></figure>For Merideth, those numbers included the building’s location half a block from Canal Street, its range of housing and what he sees as a lack of comparable new development Downtown. VPG paid about $143,736 per apartment.“Downtown is not producing new mixed-income housing,” said Merideth. “So when a building like this came available that aligned with our investment thesis, it was something we got serious about quickly.”The purchase also represents a significant step up in scale for VPG after 16 years of growth. Merideth co-founded the company with Andre Lewis, VPG’s chief operating officer, after the two attended Tuskegee University together.“The high-rise piece is a milestone for us, and something we set out to accomplish at the onset of our business,” said Merideth. “We started this company buying small properties and doing the work ourselves. Going vertical means more units, more systems, more that can go wrong at two in the morning. But that is exactly the company we built.”VPG has about $2 million committed to the property’s first round of improvements, with additional reserves set aside for its longer-term capital plan. The first priority will be replacing the central chiller systems serving the building, followed by renovations to individual units as they turn over, common areas, amenity spaces and the exterior.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1EbwqY_1FFQDQoT00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1EbwqY_1FFQDQoT00" width="1280" height="853" ><figcaption>200 Carondelet Entrance. Photo provided by VPG.</figcaption></figure>“We want people to be proud of the place they call home and that starts the minute they walk into the building and the hallways they take to make it to their apartment,” said Merideth.<h2>VPG: Affordable Housing To Stay</h2>Forty percent of the building’s apartments are set aside for residents earning 60% of area median income or less, or about 76 units. Merideth said VPG will maintain the existing affordability mix.“I believe a downtown works when the people who make it run can afford to live in it,” said Merideth. “The server, the nurse, the hotel housekeeper, the young attorney, all in the same building, all walking to work. I believe this is what makes a healthy city.”The mixed-income structure dates to the building’s post-Katrina redevelopment. The formerly commercial tower underwent a $36 million, approximately 205,000-square-foot conversion to residential use that was completed in 2008 with public and private financing.The building itself dates to 1929. Designed by prominent Louisiana architect Moise H. Goldstein, the approximately 325-foot tower combines Gothic and Art Deco influences and includes a distinctive six-story octagonal rooftop tower. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.<h2>Historic Banking Hall Could Get New Use</h2>A later phase could return the approximately 10,000-square-foot former banking hall on the ground floor to active use. The space includes a mezzanine, 26-foot ceilings and more than 100 feet of glass frontage along Carondelet and Common streets. The banking hall retains historic features including marble, walnut and bronze.“They built it to impress people, and it still does,” said Merideth.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0qoq4P_1FFQDQoT00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0qoq4P_1FFQDQoT00" width="1280" height="853" ><figcaption>200 Carondelet St – Lobby. Photo provided by VPG.</figcaption></figure>The banking hall could eventually house a restaurant or other food and beverage business, an event or hospitality venue or creative offices.“We know that to truly bring this corner back we are going to have to bring energy from the ground floor,” said Merideth. “Whatever goes in there will give something back to the residents upstairs and to the people walking by.”VPG is pursuing New Markets Tax Credits for the commercial portion of the project, and Merideth said the project qualifies for both federal and Louisiana historic tax credits.“Restoring a room like that is expensive, and that capital is what makes ambition affordable,” said Merideth.The Menkiti Group participated in the acquisition as an equity partner, and Home Bank provided financing for the transaction.<h2>VPG Sees Opportunity Downtown</h2>VPG is already looking beyond 200 Carondelet for additional investment in the Central Business District.“And yes, we want more downtown,” said Merideth. “Now that our teams are already in the CBD, the next building gets easier and cheaper to run well. We intend to be a much larger owner here.”Merideth said that outlook is partly driven by the difficulty of developing new apartments in the current economic environment.Nationally, input costs for new nonresidential construction rose 8.9% from August 2025 to August 2026, according to a September analysis of federal data by the Associated General Contractors of America, which cited tariffs and geopolitical disruptions among the factors pushing up material costs.Apartment construction has also slowed. The annualized rate of housing starts in buildings with five or more units fell to 344,000 in August, down from 431,000 in July, according to Census Bureau data released Sept. 17. Overall housing starts fell 2.6% from July and 1.2% from a year earlier.“The buildings standing today are the supply for a long time to come,” said Merideth. “If you can buy well below what it would cost to build, and you can actually do the work, the math makes sense.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2kpUYy_1FFQDQoT00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2kpUYy_1FFQDQoT00" width="1280" height="853" ><figcaption>Photo provided by VPG.</figcaption></figure>He cautioned, however, that those conditions do not make every acquisition viable.“This environment does not forgive mistakes,” said Merideth. “The margin for error is thin, and that is going to reward companies that are disciplined about what they pay and capable of doing their own work. I like where that leaves a local, vertically integrated company.”“We have been here. We are staying here. And we are betting on this city, because we plan to be here for the long run,” said Merideth.Editor’s Note: This story is part of the Biz New Orleans Magazine focus on downtown New Orleans in September.</div></body>

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NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans-based Verius Property Group (VPG) has purchased the 23-story former National American Bank Building at 200 Carondelet St. for $27.2 million, marking the company’s first high-rise acquisition and setting the stage for at least $2 million in initial improvements to the nearly century-old Downtown property.

VPG Buys Downtown High-Rise for $27.2M

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NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans-based Verius Property Group (VPG) has purchased the 23-story former National American Bank Building at 200 Carondelet St. for $27

VPG Buys Downtown High-Rise for $27.2M

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