B.R., N.O. and Northshore set aside rivalries to flex combined political, economic muscle

Three years into an organized effort to give southeastern Louisiana a more powerful voice in its economic future, leaders of the fledgling initiative say it has found its wings. The Southeast Super-Region Committee, formed to unite the Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Northshore areas behind shared business goals, has begun to live up to its promise, they say. Flexing muscle in these areas requires political clout, and the committee’s founding chairman, hotel and shopping center developer Roger Ogden, says the organization has the goods. After all, he notes, the 19 parishes that constitute the super-region stretch from West Feliciana Parish eastward to Washington Parish and south to the tip of Plaquemines Parish, encompassing not only Baton Rouge and New Orleans, but dozens of smaller cities and the most heavily traveled portion of the lower Mississippi River. The region holds half the state’s population, workers and businesses, including most of Louisiana’s largest companies. “Of 144 legislators in the state, almost half come from our super-region,” Ogden says, adding the economic clout in the area helped the Super-Region Committee lobby lawmakers for passage of the Grad Act of 2010 and the Angel Investors Tax Credit last year. This month, Ogden will pass the reins of the committee to its next chairman, Robert Stuart Jr., who ticks off a list of priorities ranging from transportation infrastructure to K-12 education reform and economic development incentives. Read more about how the committee plans to achieve those goals and explore the challenges facing the super-region in the new cover story of Business Report by Kathy Finn here.