Momentum in Action: Hyundai Steel Opportunity Takes Shape

On Railroad Avenue, Donaldsonville’s past and next chapter sit only a few storefronts apart.

Longtime businesses share downtown with newer shops as owners, developers and city leaders consider what the next wave of investment could mean for a community that has watched much of the parish’s growth happen elsewhere.

A few miles away, Hyundai Steel is preparing to build its $5.8 billion advanced manufacturing facility, expected to create more than 1,300 direct new jobs and thousands more indirectly across the region. In Donaldsonville, the scale of that investment is already influencing decisions about businesses, property, housing and the city’s future.

India Davis and Renee Sterling opened Jolie + Myrtle Lane Boutique in August 2025.

Davis grew up in Donaldsonville and knew exactly where she wanted the business to be.

“Being downtown was extremely important to me because this is where the life is,” Davis said. “This is where I grew up.”

The boutique has drawn customers from Donaldsonville and beyond. For Sterling, the connection to the city has grown alongside the business. Her husband works in Donaldsonville, and her family is now in the process of relocating from Baton Rouge.

Sterling believes the arrival of more workers and families could accelerate the activity already building downtown.

“I see downtown Donaldsonville becoming a destination,” Sterling said. “I see it with shops and restaurants and activities and things for families to come and do.”

A short walk away, Lewis Savoie has watched that same stretch of downtown begin to fill in.

Savoie returned to Donaldsonville after roughly 40 years away and opened Cane Sugar Toffee Company when many nearby storefronts were empty. Today, he counts five or six businesses operating around him, and his own business is expanding.

What began as a toffee business now includes coffee and plate lunches, drawing regulars as well as visitors passing through town. Savoie said people from outside Donaldsonville and around the world have come through his doors, including Hyundai Steel decision-makers who have become regular customers.

Cane Sugar Toffee Company employs about 10 part-time workers and buys locally whenever possible.

“This little town that has been sleeping over the last couple of years will be awakened to new opportunities,” Savoie said.

What Davis, Sterling and Savoie are seeing along Railroad Avenue is part of a broader shift beginning to take shape across Donaldsonville. Hyundai Steel’s investment is still in its early stages, but businesses, property owners and city leaders are already making decisions around the growth they expect it to bring.

A New Life for Donaldsonville

Sonny Graugnard has watched Donaldsonville’s commercial landscape for more than five decades.

He has operated Graugnard Furniture and Appliance since 1972 and remembers a city with considerably more economic activity. Department stores and locally owned businesses once gave residents more reasons to shop in Donaldsonville. Over time, many of those businesses disappeared as commerce shifted elsewhere.

Jobs at Hyundai Steel are expected to pay an average annual salary of $95,000. For Graugnard, that raises a practical question: How much of that new earning power will stay in Donaldsonville?

For Graugnard, much of the answer comes down to housing.

“There’s not a lot of housing availability for people to stay in town,” he said. “We want them to stay in town.”

More housing could give more workers the option to live in Donaldsonville, expanding the customer base for restaurants, retailers and service businesses.

Graugnard is cautious about predicting exactly how much Donaldsonville will change or how quickly. Still, after more than five decades in business, he is confident about the direction.

“I think it’s going to happen, but it’s just going to take some time,” he said.

Whether that growth ultimately takes hold will depend in part on whether Donaldsonville can give new workers and businesses reasons to put down roots. In the commercial real estate market, some of those decisions are already being made.

Commercial real estate agent Shane Guillot has seen a more immediate shift in the market.

“Since the Hyundai announcement, I’ve sold more commercial real estate than I have in the last eight years combined,” Guillot said.

He can point to at least seven buildings that are returning to commerce or moving in that direction, including properties that had sat vacant for over a decade. One former auto parts and shoe store is slated to become a Korean restaurant. A former bank building that had been empty for about 10 years has attracted interest from prospective tenants, including banks considering the Donaldsonville market.

Some buyers already have business connected to Hyundai Steel. Others are positioning themselves for the demand they expect to follow.

The residential side has moved more slowly. Guillot said planned housing projects have not yet broken ground.

Guillot calls what he is seeing “the industrial ripple effect.”

Making Room for More

City leaders are preparing for that same growth on a broader scale.

Mayor Leroy Sullivan said developers are considering several residential projects that could collectively add roughly 400 homes and duplexes in and around Donaldsonville, with additional property also drawing interest.

The city is working on roads, wastewater, natural gas and other infrastructure to support additional development. Sullivan said the goal is to have the capacity in place when businesses and developers are ready to invest.

That distinction is important for Donaldsonville because Hyundai Steel will operate outside the city limits. For the city, much of the economic impact will depend on what happens around the project: where workers live, where families shop and eat and where businesses choose to invest.

Sullivan said Donaldsonville’s sales tax base has remained largely flat in recent years. More residents, visitors and commercial activity will expand that base and create additional capacity for city services and investment.

At the same time, Sullivan wants Donaldsonville to capture that opportunity without losing the character that has long defined the city.

“We want to be able to grow but still at the same time keep that small-town flavor to the city of Donaldsonville,” he said.

For much of the community, the full impact of Hyundai Steel is still ahead. For one Donaldsonville business owner, it has already arrived.

The Work is Here

Several months ago, David Hampton secured a landscaping contract with Hyundai Steel.

Hampton owns 3M Solution Services, a Donaldsonville landscaping and services company with three employees. His company now maintains approximately 16 acres of Hyundai property.

For Hampton, the land is familiar.

“Growing up, I used to ride my bike where Hyundai is now,” he said.

He remembers a time when people often left Donaldsonville to find opportunity elsewhere. Now, he sees room to grow his own company close to home.

On the morning of his interview, Hampton stopped at a gas station. While he was there, a man approached and asked whether he was hiring.

Hampton handed him a business card.

“I see my company expanding soon because the work is here,” Hampton said.

Hampton’s experience offers an early glimpse of what a project of Hyundai Steel’s scale can mean for the local community.

Along Railroad Avenue, buildings that sat empty for years are changing hands. Businesses are opening and expanding. Hundreds of new homes are under consideration. And for at least one local business, new work is already creating the possibility of new jobs.

For a city that has spent decades watching much of the parish’s growth occur on the other side of the river, what comes next is beginning much closer to home.