Marie (English: St. Mary Suburb) in the late 18th century, the modern Central Business District is today a dynamic, mixed-use neighborhood, the home of professional offices in skyscrapers, specialty and neighborhood retail stores, numerous restaurants and clubs, and thousands of residents inhabiting restored, historic commercial and industrial buildings.

A part of the area is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the New Orleans Lower Central Business District.

Significant investment began in earnest after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, as people from other parts of the United States flocked to the city.

Local and regional department stores Maison Blanche, D.H. Holmes, Godchaux's, Gus Mayer, Labiche's, Kreeger's, and Krauss anchored numerous well-known specialty retailers including Rubenstein Bros., Adler's Jewelry, Koslow's, Rapp's, and Werlein's Music.

In the 1950s, six-lane Loyola Avenue was constructed as an extension of Elk Place, cutting a swath through a low-income residential district and initially hosting the city's new civic center complex.

The late-1960s widening of Poydras Street was undertaken to create another six-lane central area circulator for vehicular traffic, as well as to accommodate modern high-rise construction.

The City of New Orleans partook in transforming the district from 1973 to 1993, in a collaboration between public and private sectors to spark active community participation.

[1] The portion of the CBD closer to the Mississippi River and upriver from Poydras Street is known as the Warehouse District, because it was heavily devoted to warehousing and manufacturing before shipping became containerized.

Though still a vibrant area, that part of the CBD witnessed the migration of much business slightly upriver to Poydras Street, as many modern high-rise office towers were constructed there in the 1970s and 1980s.

However, many of the development sites created in the wake of the improvements were never built upon, leaving a noticeable and unfortunate quantity of surface parking lots along those widened streets.

Entergy, the region's sole Fortune 500 firm, maintains its headquarters in the CBD, as does Reily Foods Company which markets Luzianne products and Standard Coffee.

[8][9] Other companies headquartered downtown are Freeport-McMoRan, Pan American Life Insurance, Superior Energy Services, TurboSquid, iSeatz, Historic Restoration Inc. (HRI Properties), Tidewater Marine, Energy Partners Ltd., Intermarine, IMTT (International-Matex Tank Terminals), International Coffee Corp., and The Receivables Exchange.

[10] The consulate re-opened in 2008 because of a dramatic increase in the local Mexican immigrant population, many of whom arrived in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to assist in rebuilding the city.