Gayle Benson, the owner of the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans and already a major player in downtown real estate, has scooped up three more properties along St. Charles Avenue facing Harmony Circle. The buys fold a vacant early-1900s office building, a shuttered live-music bar, and an adjacent quarter-acre lot into her growing footprint, though Benson is keeping any redevelopment plans close to the vest for now.
What She Bought
According to New Orleans CityBusiness, the package includes the Taylor Building at 944 St. Charles Ave., a vacant three-story office building of roughly 26,000 square feet. Also in the deal: the former Circle Bar at 1032 St. Charles Ave., a onetime music staple built in 1883, and the nearby vacant lot at the corner of Harmony Circle and Andrew Higgins Boulevard.
Sales prices were not disclosed, and New Orleans CityBusiness reports that all three properties were previously owned by Phyllis Taylor. In a statement to the outlet, Benson framed the buys as part of a long, patient play, saying, “I’ve always believed that investing in New Orleans is investing in its future.”
A Familiar Downtown Investor
This is hardly Benson’s first lap around the block when it comes to downtown real estate. Years ago she bought the hurricane-damaged New Orleans Centre and turned it into Champions Square and the Benson Tower complex. More recently, she picked up the office tower at 1515 Poydras Street in 2025.
As detailed by Corporate Realty, 1515 Poydras sits between the Sports & Entertainment and Medical districts and is intended to fit neatly into Benson’s broader downtown strategy. The firm also notes that she opened the Mercedes-Benz Van Center on Poydras in 2022 and holds interests in the adjacent Hyatt, further tightening her grip on the blocks around the Superdome.
Why The Buys Matter
The new Harmony Circle properties sit at a key crossroads where the Superdome-adjacent Sports & Entertainment District meets the expanding Medical District, an area Benson has repeatedly flagged as strategically important. The nearby Benson Tower Annex is already slated to house the new Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine, and that kind of institutional neighbor could heavily influence how the St. Charles sites are eventually reused.
New Orleans CityBusiness reports that Benson has stressed a focus on restoring historic structures and putting underused properties back into active commerce, a priority that lines up neatly with these three acquisitions. She has not yet released specific plans or price details, so the next real clues are likely to show up in permit filings and leasing announcements.
For now, the Harmony Circle purchases are one more signal that Benson is steadily locking down smaller, strategic parcels around the Superdome as part of a long-term downtown real estate strategy.
