A city’s staff of architects and historic building experts has recommended regulators reject a request to demolish Ted’s Frostop in order to replace it with student housing for nearby Tulane University — a development that could complicate the project.
In a report issued Thursday, staff of the Historic District Landmarks Commission said the 71-year-old diner should not be demolished, despite the building’s lack of landmark status, because it meets the “architectural distinctiveness and cultural significance” requirements for the designation.
“Its longstanding operation at this location since 1955, combined with its iconic signage and strong community associations, has established the site as a local landmark within the public realm,” the staff report said.
Through their real estate firm, RCR Ventures, the owners of the Robert Fresh Market supermarket chain are planning to tear down Frostop and two other adjacent buildings to make way for a three-story, 39-unit complex for roughly 160 Tulane students. The new building’s ground floor would be anchored by a new version of the diner, and its neon sign and iconic root beer mug would be preserved and incorporated into the building facade.
A rendering of a new three-story student housing complex the Robert family is developing for Tulane University. The project, which will require demolishing the old Ted’s Frostop, will incorporate the restaurant and its iconic signage into the new building.
“Since the inception of this project, though it’s taken many forms, we have always included Ted’s Frostop as the anchor and part of the development,” Matthieu Robert said Friday. “We’ve always wanted to keep the signs.”
The HDLC does not have to follow the recommendation of its staff. Even if it does, the City Council can override its decision, as it often does. Still, the issues raised in the staff report could fuel opposition to a project that is already raising concerns among some in the neighborhood.
Tulane University, which first announced the plans in late March, has since stressed that RCR Ventures is in charge of the project and declined to comment on the HDLC staff report Friday.
“Tulane is not developing, nor does it own the property,” University spokesperson Mike Strecker said. “We will be tenants when it is completed.”
He added, “There is no formal agreement with the developer but there is a non-binding term sheet.”
‘Investing in our students, our neighborhood’
The project comes as Tulane has been on a multi-year building spree as part of an initiative to require students to reside on its Uptown campus for three years. Starting last fall, all Tulane juniors who weren’t studying abroad have been required to live in dorms.
Ted’s Frostop on Calhoun Street near the Tulane campus in New Orleans, Monday, March 23, 2026. (Staff photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune)
Unlike its other dormitories, Tulane would not own the new off-campus residential development.
Instead, RCR Ventures would retain ownership of the building and rent it out to the university under a long-term lease, which would incorporate it into its student housing program “and also provide on-site security for residents, creating additional security for the neighborhood,” Tulane said in its announcement of the project last month.
“This is a disciplined, driven approach — one that aligns student housing needs with neighborhood priorities,” said Patrick Norton, Tulane’s senior vice president and chief operating officer in the state. “We are investing in our students and the neighborhood we share.”
The project would be bounded by S. Claiborne Avenue, S. Miro and Calhoun streets, across from Tulane’s baseball stadium, and include Frostop and two other commercial buildings, all of which the Roberts have acquired over the past three years.
Ted’s Frostop on Calhoun Street near the Tulane campus in New Orleans, Monday, March 23, 2026. (Staff photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune)
Though most preservation battles in New Orleans, a more than 300-year-old city, center on 18th and 19th century buildings, the Ted’s Frostop location is one of those neighborhood landmarks that holds a special place in the hearts of many who grew up in the area.
Robert said the family plans to keep the diner going in the new space and respects the significance locals attach to the signage, which is why it is preserving them.
“We’ve been really trying our best to follow the letter of the law and bring an additional asset to the neighborhood that revitalizes an important commercial corridor,” he said.
‘Rare surviving example’
Frostop, which started out in the 1920s as a chain of root beer stands, came to New Orleans in the mid-1950s, courtesy of Ted Sternberg, a New Orleanian who opened the first location shortly after returning from a tour of duty in the Korean War. He would go on to own 14 locations, including several in the New Orleans area.
The signage of the S. Claiborne Avenue location is protected as one of 34 signs that have been granted “classic sign status” under the city’s zoning code, according to the HDLC staff report. The building, however, was constructed after the Carrollton local historic district’s “period of significance,” which runs from 1840 to 1937.
The root beer mug sign at TedÕs Frostop has that wonderful old roadside charm at Ted’s Frostop on Calhoun Street near the Tulane campus in New Orleans, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Staff photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune)
Nonetheless, the staff said, the building is a rare surviving example of drive-in commercial architecture of the mid-20th-century and contributes to the area’s “broader cultural and visual character.”
The commission staff had no objection to razing either of the other two buildings on the site, both vacant — a former Mid City Pizza and a First Horizon Bank branch — but recommended waiting until a new construction permit is approved before green lighting the demolition.
Ted’s Frostop on Calhoun Street near the Tulane campus in New Orleans, Monday, March 23, 2026. (Staff photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune)
The HDLC will take up the matter at its meeting Wednesday.
Developers hope to begin demolition in late summer with the aim of completing construction by the start of the 2027-28 school year.
