A New Orleans Saints game in London helped lead to a $362 million project announcement in Iberville Parish today, the state’s head of economic development says. Stephen Moret says officials pitched the state to European businesses on a trip tied to the Saints’ game against the San Diego Chargers in London last year. One of the companies visited on that trip was French specialty chemical manufacturer SNF.
Louisiana ended up as one of four states competing for a water-soluble polymers plant SNF plans to build. Moret confirmed today that Louisiana had landed the project, more good news for a Capital Region that has largely escaped the worst of the national recession. Once fully ramped up, the plant will employ more than 500 permanent workers with an average salary of $57,000 and more than 100 contract workers. SNF will be one of the top 150 economic driver firms in the state, along with the V-Vehicle Company, which announced Wednesday that it would build an assembly plant in Monroe.
“These two announcements this week would not have been possible without increased funding for the megafund,” Moret says. The Legislature upped the incentive fund’s total from $150 million to $400 million last year.
The company will receive $39.4 million from the fund, most of which will go to construction of a rail spur adjacent to the 800-acre site next to Shintech on La. 405 just south of Plaquemine. SNF will also get about $18.8 million from the state’s quality jobs program over the next 10 years, and $1 million from Iberville Parish, assuming SNF hits all of its performance targets, Moret says. SNF will also utilize $100 million in GO Zone bonds.
The plant will be built in phases over the next five years with an average of 250 construction workers over that time. The LSU analysis estimates the project’s economic impact at $3.7 billion over the next 15 years, including $107 million in new state tax revenue and nearly $30 million in local taxes, not counting property and corporate income taxes, and predicts 900 jobs will be created indirectly.
