The BioDistrict New Orleans, a state-created but unfunded economic development district, is broke, facing a possible lawsuit from its former president and lacking even an office to call its own.
But the agency — created by the Legislature in 2005 to advance the bioinnovation sector in New Orleans — is counting on a new partnership with the New Orleans Business Alliance to drag it from the doldrums.
The BioDistrict board agreed Wednesday to enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement that will let the Business Alliance, a public-private economic development agency, oversee a one-year transition period, at the end of which the struggling BioDistrict would have a more clearly defined mission and recommendations on sources of long-term funding.