After over a year of negotiations, it looks like Tipitina's plan to redevelop the former site of the Bally's riverboat casino landing into a festival park is actually going to happen: the developer just signed a binding agreement with the government authority that owns the property.

The developer, Tipitina's owner Roland von Kurnatowski, signed a 50-year lease with the Orleans Parish Non-Flood Protection Asset Management Authority, which owns the Lakefront property. The plan is to turn the 4.5-acre site in New Orleans East into a "festival park that would anchor a larger development that would include bars, restaurants, shops and a nightclub."

· Tipitina's inks deal for lakefront festival park, agrees to $12M redevelopment [NOLA.com]