Louisiana Earns Top 10 Ranking In Site Selection Governor’s Cup

BATON ROUGE, La. — Today, Site Selection magazine ranked Louisiana No. 10, on a per capita basis, among states with the most new and expanded facilities in 2019. This year’s Governor’s Cup ranking marks the 10th time in the past 11 years that Louisiana has landed in the Top 10 for project performance on a per capita basis.

For cities, Baton Rouge ranked No. 2 among mid-sized metros of 200,000 to 1 million people. Both Baton Rouge (No. 4) and New Orleans (No. 5) ranked among the Top Mississippi River Metros, while Baton Rouge (No. 6) and Vidalia, Louisiana-Natchez, Mississippi, (No. 7) ranked in the Top 10 for Mississippi River cities on a per capita basis.

“Today’s Site Selection rankings demonstrate that Louisiana is on the right track, and that we are making significant economic development progress statewide and in our communities,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said. “The most important outcome of this performance is that we are bringing valuable jobs to Louisiana families. Our project wins during 2019 will deliver 12,300 new jobs to Louisiana, while our performance since 2016 is resulting in over 40,800 new jobs across our state. In addition, we have retained over 36,600 jobs at existing employers through important expansion projects in the past four-plus years.”

The Governor’s Cup measures the quantity of significant business development projects for the calendar year. Site Selection tallies the number of projects in a state that represent one or more of the following criteria: a minimum capital investment of $1 million, 20 or more new jobs created, and 20,000 square feet or more of new building space. In 2019, Louisiana recorded 110 economic development project wins meeting the magazine’s criteria.

Major project wins in the past year include: a 240-job expansion by Bagwell Energy Services in Iberia Parish; an approximately $500 million polyolefins expansion by ExxonMobil Baton Rouge that will retain 3,000 jobs and result in 284 new direct and indirect jobs; the retention of the CenturyLink headquarters and more than 1,500 jobs in Monroe; a 500-job, home-office expansion by LHC Group in Lafayette; a 200-job expansion by EY (Ernst & Young) in New Orleans; a $150 million refinery expansion by Delek US Holdings in Krotz Springs; an Epic Piping fabrication project with 79 direct and indirect jobs in Lake Providence; and a $375 million expansion by SNF in Iberville Parish, with 431 new direct and indirect jobs.

Other 2019 project wins include: a $20 million expansion and the retention of 150 jobs by Supreme Rice in Crowley; two poultry processing expansions by House of Raeford Farms totaling $46.7 million in Bienville and Lincoln parishes, with 960 retained jobs and 438 new direct and indirect jobs; a $1.3 billion Ascension Parish expansion by Methanex that will lead to a three-plant methanol complex supporting 1,730 direct and indirect jobs; a $53 million health care logistics project by Medline in St. Tammany Parish that will result in over 1,000 new direct and indirect jobs; a 400-job, corporate-headquarters expansion by Ampirical Solutions, also in St. Tammany Parish; and a $25 million forest products expansion by Alexandria-based RoyOMartin at the company’s Chopin and Oakdale sites, with over 1,000 retained jobs and 38 new direct and indirect jobs.

Louisiana also ranks among the Top 10 U.S. states in broader business climate rankings, including Area Development (nine years in a row) and Site Selection (10 years in a row). For the past two consecutive years, Southern Business & Development ranked Louisiana No. 2 among Southern states for best economic development performance. Louisiana Economic Development’s LED FastStart® has ranked No. 1 in the nation among state workforce training programs for the past 10 consecutive years.

About Site Selection
Site Selection magazine, published by Conway Inc., delivers expansion planning information to a qualified circulation of 48,700 executives of fast-growing firms. Celebrating its 65th anniversary this year, Site Selection is headquartered in Atlanta. For more information, visit SiteSelection.com.

 

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