Ted’s Frostop in New Orleans to be demolished for housing | Business News

Tulane University is planning a new student housing complex across South Claiborne Avenue from its Uptown campus, a project that will include demolishing Ted’s Frostop, the local diner that has operated on the site since 1955.

In an announcement to its staff Monday, Tulane officials said the complex will house some 160 students in 39 apartments. It will also include a ground-floor parking garage and space for neighborhood shops.

Frostop will be the anchor tenant housed in the new building. Its neon sign and giant root beer mug will be preserved and displayed on the front of the new building, Tulane said.

The move is the latest by Tulane to add to its housing options, part of a long-term goal to bring more students on-campus and out of nearby neighborhoods. Last summer, it completed a new $200 million residential complex, The Village, with hundreds of new dorm rooms, designed to accommodate the freshman, sophomores and juniors now required to live on campus.

Those projects were built by the university within the traditional boundaries of its Uptown campus. The South Claiborne development is on privately owned land across the street from campus, and is being built by a third-party.

“This is a disciplined, driven approach — one that aligns student housing needs with neighborhood priorities, activates an important corridor and reinforces the long-term vitality of the area,” said Patrick Norton, Tulane’s senior vice president and chief operating officer in the statement. “By combining a strong residential experience with the continuity of Ted’s Frostop, we’re investing in both our students and the neighborhood we share.”

The complex is being developed by the Robert family, which owns the Robert’s Fresh Market chain of grocery stores and has developed retail projects next to its supermarkets in Faubourg Marigny and near the lake. This will be the family’s largest real estate project to date, said Matthieu Robert, who is leading the project with his brother, Marc, and brother in law, Peter Connick, through their real estate company, RCR Ventures.

Matthieu Robert declined to say how much the project could cost but estimates it will be in the tens of millions.

Over the past few years, the Roberts have purchased the properties on South Claiborne between Calhoun and S. Miro streets that will be torn down to make way for the new complex, property records show. They include a Mid City Pizza location, vacated several months ago, a former First Horizon Bank branch, also vacant, and the Frostop site.

The Frostop acquisition, in 2025, also included the restaurant itself, including its recipes and branding. Matthieu Robert said that ensures his family can keep its legacy alive.

Demolition and construction are tentatively scheduled to start in late summer and to be finished by the start of classes in August 2027.

A new approach?

In its statement sent to staff, Tulane said it hopes to house a mix of graduate and undergraduates in the complex. Tulane declined to comment beyond the statement, but university officials have previously said that even with the new dorms on campus, it still won’t have enough units rooms to accommodate those required to live on campus.

The South Claiborne project could represent a new approach, as Tulane will act as a long-term tenant and “operate the residential portion of the development as a part of its larger student housing program and also provide on-site security for residents, creating additional security for the neighborhood.”

Residents have frequently clashed with Tulane over the years due to the noise, trash and parking problems created by students who live off campus. Those concerns appeared to be part of motivation for the new development.

“RCR will ensure that the site is designed, in accordance with the city and the neighborhood’s zoning ordinances,” Tulane’s statement said. “The new building will comply with and, in many instances, exceed parking, noise, trash, height and density requirements, according to RCR, ensuring professional operations, maintenance and security.”

The area does not require a conditional use permit or zoning waiver because it is zoned for commercial, Robert said.

End of an era

While the project promises to keep Frostop alive in a new building, it marks the end of an era for the local diner.

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 open 14 more across Louisiana and Arkansas, including several in New Orleans. The diners were known for their signature frosted mugs of root beer and oversized Lot-O-Burgers. They were identifiable by their outsized, neon-ringed mugs of root beer that towered over the restaurants.

Over the years, several of the locations closed as Frostop gradually lost market share to the growing number of fast food outlets. Still, the Claiborne Avenue location and a handful of others held on, surviving downturns, competition and Hurricane Katrina.

In 2014, Sternberg died. A group of local investors purchased the Claiborne Avenue location from his estate and kept it going.

During construction, Robert said the developers are planning to provide a temporary home for Frostop in a food truck that will circulate campus and the neighborhood.

In addition to opportunities to operate the food truck, the existing Ted’s Frostop employees will be offered employment in the prepared foods department at Robert’s Fresh Market, Matthieu Robert said.

When the restaurant is ready to reopen in its new location, they will have the option to go back to their old jobs or stay in their new ones.

“We want to make sure the workforce is part of this whole transition,” Robert said. “We didn’t want anybody to think they will be out of a job.”

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to note that Peter Connick is a partner in the project through RCR Ventures