Slidell City Council

The Slidell City Council at its meeting Tuesday evening is going to consider appointing attorneys David Wolf and Ray Cornelius of the Adams & Reese law firm as special counsel for the recently-created Camellia Square Economic Development District. If the appointment is approved, Wolf and Cornelius will primarily be in charge of working with the city to prepare and review all necessary resolutions, notices and ordinances in connection with the district.

The creation of the economic development district at the 8.5-acre Camellia Square commercial site at 1736 Gause Blvd. East permits its board, the Slidell City Council, to weigh collecting an additional 1 percent sales tax and/or 2 percent hotel tax on consumer transactions conducted there to support infrastructure improvements or to recover construction costs. However, the council is not obligated to adopt an ordinance enacting either levy.

Reine Diamonds & Fine Jewelry and The Country’s Best Yogurt, or TCBY, are already open at Camellia Square, which is being developed by Brian Reine’s Reine Construction Corp. of St. Tammany Parish. Reine says plans call for a Wingate by Wyndham hotel as well as other retail, restaurant and office space.

Wolf counseled the City of Slidell on the issue of the economic development district prior to its creation. When council members established the district on Sept. 12, Wolf remarked during a hearing that introducing and approving both of the special sales and hotel taxes at Camellia Square would generate an estimated $190,000 annually. In any case, if a tax is adopted within the district, the City Council would collect the revenue and distribute it according to the terms of any agreement negotiated between Slidell and Reine.

Wolf, who joined Adams & Reese in 2003, has acted as bond counsel for industrial development boards, port commissions and special services districts as well as numerous state, parish and municipal government entities in Louisiana. Meanwhile, Cornelius, who also started at Adams & Reese in 2003, has extensive experience with special project financing involving facilities that are pursued by public bodies for the sake of economic development, the biographies of the lawyers note.

The council gathering starts at 6:30 p.m. on the third floor of 2045 Second St. in Olde Towne.

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