Teen's Death in Abandoned New Orleans Skyscraper Exposes a City's Long Struggle with Vacant Buildings
A 17-year-old high school student from Belle Chasse, Louisiana, died after falling inside the abandoned Plaza Tower in downtown New Orleans, an incident that has drawn fresh attention to the city's difficulty managing long-vacant buildings and the underground hobby known as urban exploration.
Jacque St Ann and a group of friends broke into the fenced-off, 45-story Plaza Tower in New Orleans' central business district on the night of 15 August 2026. According to police, St Ann climbed to a higher floor at around midnight and fell to his death as the group tried to descend an interior staircase. Police declined to specify the floor from which he fell, citing respect for his family. Local paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene, and the coroner's office listed the cause of death as "blunt force injuries due to fall from height" (The Guardian).
Another teenager in the group was hospitalized with a deep cut to an arm and wrist. Police did not disclose the total number of teens present and indicated that some may have left before St Ann fell (The Guardian).
St Ann was identified as a member of the Belle Chasse High School Class of 2027 (WWL-TV).
The 58-year-old Plaza Tower has not been in use since before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005. Its long decline has created hazards beyond its interior: in 2021, debris falling from the structure struck a passing cyclist, leading the city to install protective netting at the site. City officials have identified Alexandria Land & Development LLC, the estate of the late New Orleans land magnate Joe Jaeger, as the building's owner and the legal entity responsible for securing it. Jaeger purchased the tower in 2014, and the city issued fines against him over years of inaction. The New Orleans City Council has passed a resolution supporting the tower's redevelopment (The Guardian; New Orleans City Council).
In the immediate aftermath of St Ann's death, city and law enforcement officials moved to issue warnings. New Orleans police cautioned the public against "urban exploring," the practice of entering off-limits or abandoned structures for thrills or photography. Deputy Police Superintendent Nicholas Gernon stated that the Plaza Tower was not a safe building to explore at night. Deputy Mayor Michael Harrison, a former city police superintendent, offered condolences and warned against entering boarded-up, abandoned buildings. Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick acknowledged that St Ann's friends and family were "traumatized" and raised the possibility of trespassing charges, though she indicated those would be considered after a grieving period (The Guardian).
The Plaza Tower's status is not unique to New Orleans. Cities such as Detroit, St. Louis, and Baltimore have spent years dealing with derelict high-rises that combine structural dangers, trespassing risk, and enforcement costs. The pattern typically involves developers who buy properties but stall on redevelopment due to financing shortfalls, environmental cleanup requirements, or legal complications tied to estate transitions. The Plaza Tower fits this profile closely: nearly two decades of vacancy, a documented history of falling debris causing injury, municipal fines levied against the owner, and a city council resolution urging redevelopment, yet no visible progress toward demolition or rehabilitation.
The enforcement gap here is structural. Cities possess tools such as code enforcement liens (legal claims placed on a property to recover unpaid fines), receivership actions (where a court appoints a third party to take control of a neglected property), and demolition-by-contractor mechanisms, but these are typically slow, contested at each step, and limited by available resources. The transfer of ownership to an estate, as occurred with the Jaeger properties, can further complicate legal proceedings by spreading responsibility across heirs and corporate entities. When a building of this scale and visibility remains unsecured for two decades despite municipal fines and public outcry, the question shifts from whether the owner is negligent to whether the enforcement framework itself is adequate.
The potential for trespassing charges against the surviving teenagers introduces another layer. Kirkpatrick's measured approach, deferring charges during a mourning period, reflects a tension between deterrence and compassion that local prosecutors will ultimately navigate. But the legal exposure of the property owner, Alexandria Land & Development LLC, is the more lasting question. A documented history of falling debris, municipal fines, and now a fatality could support claims of negligent maintenance under Louisiana premises liability law, the body of law that holds property owners responsible for injuries that occur on their property. This is particularly relevant given that protective netting installed after the 2021 incident addressed exterior hazards but did not render the building inaccessible.
The broader context here is the intersection of urban decay, property rights, and public safety in post-Katrina New Orleans. The city has made strides in redeveloping its downtown corridor, but structures like the Plaza Tower remain as stubborn exceptions. For urban planners and municipal officials, the case illustrates the limits of fines and resolutions when an owner lacks either the capital or the incentive to act. For law enforcement, it reveals the difficulty of securing large, permeable structures against determined entrants. And for a community that has now lost a teenager to a building that has been visibly dangerous for years, it raises the question of how many warning signs must accumulate before a city moves from fining an owner to seizing the property.
