Southern Business & Development magazine has named Louisiana the top southern state for attracting significant capital investment and job-creation projects per capita for the seventh straight year.
Louisiana breezed to the top of the list with a combination of large employment projects and significant capital investment projects in 2015. However, the magazine named Tennessee its 2016 State of the Year, a title Louisiana has held outright or shared six of the last 10 years.
“The petrochemical sector in Louisiana continues to march on with lots of projects in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and the Lake Charles region,” the editors wrote for Louisiana.
Only Texas scored more points in the overall category that Louisiana, which easily outdistanced Tennessee, which finished more than 15 points behind Louisiana in the south region.
Lake Charles earned the distinction of 2016 Small Market of the Year. New Orleans and Baton Rouge earned honorable mentions in the top markets of the year category.
“Louisiana remains a leading destination for companies planning expansions or new investments, and today’s recognition from Southern Business & Development validates the confidence we have in our state’s ability to sustain a strong business climate and attract new job-creation projects,” Gov. John Bel Edwards says in a statement.
Among the statewide projects highlights were as IBM’s 400-job client innovation center in Monroe; EPIC Piping’s 560-job pipe fabrication complex and corporate headquarters in Livingston; and Formosa Petrochemical Corp.’s potential $9.4 billion industrial complex in St. James Parish.
