The Avenue
A Former Hospital Begins a New Chapter
For generations, the former Franklin Foundation Hospital was a place where St. Mary Parish families received care and welcomed new life. After closing in 2008, the property remained vacant for nearly two decades. The Avenue is now returning that familiar landmark to service through an adaptive reuse project that will create 72 affordable apartments for adults age 55 and older.
RNGD Builders and NORP Construction are delivering the construction work for New Orleans Restoration Properties and Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corporation, working with HCI Architecture and a broad group of housing, finance, and community partners. The central opportunity is clear: preserve a building that matters to Franklin while converting a former medical facility into safe, comfortable homes designed for the community’s older residents.
Construction is underway following the August 2026 groundbreaking. The project moves beyond preserving a facade or a memory. It gives an existing campus a practical new purpose, reconnecting the property to daily community life while addressing a documented need for quality, affordable senior housing in Franklin and St. Mary Parish.
Converting a Medical Campus Into 72 Homes
Adaptive reuse begins with understanding what can remain, what must change, and how new residential systems can fit within an older institutional structure. RNGD is transforming the former hospital into one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, shared amenity areas, service spaces, and an on-site health hub. The completed community is planned to serve seniors across a range of incomes, including residents with physical or developmental disabilities and veterans.
The construction sequence brings residential requirements into a building originally planned around patient rooms, clinical circulation, and hospital operations. Crews are coordinating selective demolition, new room layouts, building-system upgrades, accessibility improvements, interior finishes, and exterior restoration so the historic property can operate as housing. Individual apartments are planned with modern heating and cooling, in-unit laundry, durable countertops, and the privacy and independence expected in a permanent home.
The work also connects preservation with resilience and sustainability. Project materials identify FORTIFIED Commercial standards and Enterprise Green Communities criteria as guiding performance goals. Those requirements place added attention on storm resistance, energy efficiency, resident health, and the ability of the property to recover after severe weather, all priorities with direct value in South Louisiana.
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