Top this: Apartments going up above Pass Christian shops

PASS CHRISTIAN -- The fog and rain weren't slowing construction Tuesday on four new apartments coming atop businesses on Davis Avenue.

Mayor Chipper McDermott said the living spaces going up atop Asian Paradise restaurant, Thou Art Gallery & Gifts and The Purple Pelican, are part of the Pass' plan by to incorporate mixed-use space back into the cityscape.

McDermott said many business owners lived above, below or behind their shops in the 1950s and 1960s, and it help cut business overhead.

"When I was a kid in Pass Christian they lived in either the back of the store or below the store," he said.

Post-Hurricane Katrina charrettes indicated Pass Christian needed to build density, and McDermott said he hopes rental units downtown becomes the new normal.

"We're starting to do that now, where you have people living in the downtown area and using that same area for two things -- residents on top and businesses on bottom. And that's the future," he said.

The second-floor apartments, developed by Bill Legier and his son Billy Legier of New Orleans, meet the post-Katrina building requirements, McDermott said. Bill Legier owns a home on East Scenic Drive.

He also built the apartments atop storefronts on Jeff Davis Avenue in Long Beach. The Pass Christian units have the same second-floor connecting walkway between buildings. They also have porches that overlook Davis Avenue.

McDermott said the units will draw in out-of-towners looking for weekend or summer homes.

He noted New Orleanians aren't afraid to spend good money for rent.

"This town is people that were not just born and raised here. It's people from other places."

McDermott said the apartments will be ready in about a month. Area business owners said the apartments offer convenience to the beach and a view of the city, the Sound and Pass Christian harbor.

McDermott said more mixed-use buildings are coming to Scenic Drive toward the middle of town. Blind Tiger owner Thomas Genin also put in plans for the empty lot west across the street from the new apartments. Plans for that haven't yet been released.

The mayor said he hopes to see more living space downtown as more businesses pop up.

"That's what we are looking for everyone to start doing," he said.

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 9:30 PM with the headline "Top this: Apartments going up above Pass Christian shops ."