Saltline Kitchen — Historic Building Restaurant Conversion, New Orleans, LA
A regional restaurant group had acquired a historic commercial building in New Orleans' Warehouse District to convert into a flagship seafood restaurant. The building was over 90 years old, had multiple layers of previous use classifications, and sat within a historic preservation district — meaning any structural or façade modifications required both standard building permits and historic preservation board approval.
Our Role
Rhea Strategies led the code compliance and engineering workstream, beginning with a thorough existing conditions assessment and code gap analysis. We developed a compliance roadmap that satisfied both the current building code and the historic preservation requirements, and engineered the kitchen and utility systems to work within the building's existing structural constraints.
We also managed the dual-track permitting process — standard building permit and historic board review — coordinating submissions and hearing preparation simultaneously to avoid sequencing delays.
The Outcome
Saltline Kitchen opened to strong local reception and received approval from both the building department and the historic preservation board without modification requests. The project is now cited internally as a model for how the restaurant group approaches historic conversions in new markets.
We also managed the dual-track permitting process — standard building permit and historic board review — coordinating submissions and hearing preparation simultaneously to avoid sequencing delays.
Results at a Glance:
✓ Dual-track permitting: building department + historic preservation board
✓ Full MEP engineering within existing structural constraints
✓ Zero modification requests from either reviewing body
✓ Existing conditions assessment completed in under 2 weeks