The New Orleans Building Corporation was incorporated as a public benefit corporation in May, 2000. It was formed for the purpose of owning, leasing, developing and operating properties owned by the City of New Orleans or by the Corporation, including but not limited to planning, renovating, constructing, leasing, subleasing, managing and promoting such properties. The direction and administration of the Corporation is vested in a seven-member Board of Directors comprised of the Mayor, the Councilmembers-at-Large, one district Councilman, and three members appointed by the Mayor with Council approval. The Directors elect a President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary.

The concept of setting up a clearinghouse to oversee the city's real estate is a direct outgrowth of a 56-year lease signed in 1963 between Mayor Victor Schiro and the International Trade Mart, the precursor organization to the World Trade Center. The lease led to the construction of the office tower at the foot of Poydras Street. As part of that agreement, the Schiro administration established the New Orleans International Trade Building Corp. to act as the city's landlord for the World Trade Center project. In the process of reviewing old, yellowed documents, the Morial administration discovered a provision that permits the corporation to develop or dispose of any public property in Orleans Parish. The agency will be the landlord for the World Trade Center site and all assets in the city's real estate portfolio that aren't being managed by another department.