WININGDER, LOCAL landowner and one of the original developers of Jazzland, has another grand plan for eastern New Orleans: a $35 million to $40 million, 300-suite resort hotel and conference center on Lake Forest Boulevard adjacent to the park's front entrance.

"It will be unlike any other hotel in the metropolitan area," he says, comparing the proposed amenities to those offered in hotel complexes on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The resort will have a restaurant, 20,000 square feet of meeting space and a planned golfing arrangement with nearby Eastover Country Club. "The idea is to build a hotel that appeals to park guests in summer and, in winter when the park is closed, to small groups of business travelers who come to town," Winingder says.

Future possibilities also include three new hotels between Jazzland and Michoud Boulevard, plus a motel at the park's entrance. Local attorney and real estate developer John Cummings hopes to pull together a partnership to build the hotels by 2003 on the nearly 3,000 acres he owns near the park.

But a slowing economy may stall many planned hotel projects and jeopardize those already in place throughout New Orleans, cautious Jon Fels, hotel broker and consultant and chief executive officer of Fels Hotel Group in Baton Rouge. Fels says with more than 30,000 hotel rooms here already, the market for the metropolitan area has reached the saturation point with demand for rooms decreasing.

Business and leisure travel is down and New Orleans doesn't have the strong corporate base needed to fill rooms 365 days of the year, he says.

"Right now most local lending institutions have a moratorium on hotel financing in general," Fels says. "Their portfolios for hotels have been exhausted."

Eastern New Orleans has not yet achieved status as a premier travel destination, Fels adds. From opening day May 20 until the end of 2000, Jazzland attracted 1.4 million visitors, according to Amusement Business, a Nashville-based publication that tracks the live entertainment and amusements industries. Fels says visitor numbers have not yet generated any appreciable hotel business.

But owners of the Avalon Hotel and Conference Center, one of several new hotels that opened in eastern New Orleans last year, claim business is good. The complex has 175 rooms, seven suites, 7,600 square feet of public space, and the newly opened Camelot restaurant.

"We are capturing some of the meetings market that previously had to go downtown," says Mike Valentino, managing partner of Hotel Management of New Orleans, which owns and operates three properties in the French Quarter in addition to the Avalon. He declines to discuss occupancy figures.

"We have carved out a piece of the market that wanted to be in the east, but couldn't find a facility, and we're very excited and confident about our investment," he says.

Valentino says the eastern New Orleans area is on a steadily improving path and gives credit not only to Jazzland, but also to Bally's New Orleans Casino, Eastover Country Club home development, the recent expansion by Folger's Coffee Co. of its processing facility and oilfield support company activity.

The Avalon hotel provides its guests free shuttle service to Jazzland, and beginning in September will offer visitors direct service from Louis Armstrong International Airport. Previously, airport hotel shuttle service transported guests to hotels in the downtown area before proceeding to eastern New Orleans.

Anne Zoller Kiefer, executive director of the New Orleans East Economic Development Foundation, says the Avalon represents the first hotel complex in eastern New Orleans to be developed by a local investor, a trend she predicts will continue. "When you're fortunate enough to have a local investor who has concentrated on successful developments in downtown move his parameters to the East, that means you're making progress," Kiefer says.

Several months ago the Avalon joined with other hotels along the Interstate 10 service road corridor, including the Holiday Inn Express, Comfort Suites and Super 8 Motel, to form the New Orleans East Hotel/Motel Association. The group is working with local tourism and economic development officials and has established a liaison with New Orleans Police Department's Seventh District.

"Hotels in New Orleans East haven't had a single voice until now," Kiefer adds. "There have been so many times that they haven't been at the table."

Winingder is optimistic about eastern New Orleans and says he is actively pursuing financing for his project, though lie acknowledges that the credit market is difficult.

"In general, hotels are not on the priority list for banks right now, but that will change," he predicts. "We have a strong feasibility study and an excellent product, and often once a local bank gets involved, that leads to additional financial resources outside Louisiana."

Signs of local investment in eastern New Orleans are everywhere, Kiefer says, pointing to Jazzland and to The Plaza, which local developer Gowri Kailas is working to redevelop, as well as the planned Palace Theatre oil die shopping center site.

"We have significant growth in New Orleans East and it's coming from other parts of the city and the metropolitan area," she says. She predicts more hotel development will accompany a host of attractions proposed for the area, including a water park near Jazzland, a speedway, and Lincoln Beach, which is scheduled to open next year.