A.  Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the city of New Orleans is hereby authorized to enter into agreements of sale, lease, conveyance, transfer, exchange, option, or other transaction relating to real property, or any interest therein which it may deem necessary to carry out the desired expansion of the New Orleans Convention Center, including the sale, conveyance, mortgage, lease, sublease, transfer, option, exchange, or other transaction with respect to property owned now or acquired during the effective period of this Section by the city of New Orleans, which property is described as that portion of ground bounded by the existing Convention Center, the Mississippi River, the right of way of the Greater New Orleans Bridge and Convention Center Boulevard and that square of ground bounded by Poydras Street, South Peters Street, Canal Street and Jeanne d’Arc Place, solely in order to accomplish the expansion of the New Orleans Convention Center, with any public or private entity, including cooperative economic endeavors.  Notwithstanding the provisions of La. Rev. Stat. 41:1211 et seq., and La. Rev. Stat. 38:2211 et seq., with respect to the purchase, sale, or lease of property or construction or development by public entities, the city of New Orleans may negotiate all such agreements without compliance with such laws, with respect to the above described properties and Squares numbers 9A, 10A, 11A, 12A, 15B, 16B, 17B, 18B, 19B, 28, 29, 30, 32, 41, 42, 44, 45, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 96, 97, 98, 100, 101, 99, 102, 103, and 104 in the area bounded by the Mississippi River, the right of way of the Greater New Orleans Bridge, Annunciation Street, and Race Street, but only insofar as concerns those squares or portions of squares which belong to an entity doing business as a common carrier or an entity which is owned by, under the control of or is a subsidiary of an entity doing business as a common carrier.

B.  The provisions of this Section shall govern only those agreements and transactions for which the primary documents are completed and executed within three years after July 5, 1987.

C.  Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, and specifically notwithstanding the provisions of La. Rev. Stat. 31:149 and La. Rev. Stat. 41:1338(A) and (B), any land, property, or rights acquired by the city of New Orleans and/or the New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority pursuant to this Section for the purpose of the expansion of the New Orleans Convention Center, may be sold to a third party for the said purpose of expansion without prior offer to sell to the original vendor or his successors in title, provided that any such property was acquired from another public entity, any other entity the principal business of which is that of a common carrier or an entity which is owned or controlled by, is a subsidiary of or is related to a common carrier.

Acts 1987, No. 308, §1, eff. July 5, 1987.