Louisiana fell three spots in Site Selection magazine’s 2015 Governor’s Cup awards for the number of announced new and expanded corporate facilities on a per capita basis.
Louisiana is No. 6 in the nation with 148, or 31.8 projects per million people in 2015, according to the trade publication. The state was No. 3 in 2014 with 200 projects, or 43 per million.
“We applaud this recognition by Site Selection magazine because all across our state, we are working hard to promote Louisiana as the premier place to do business,” says Gov. John Bel Edwards in a news release. “Going forward, our mission will be to stabilize Louisiana’s budget and make critical investments in our economy. Quality education and job training continue to lay the groundwork for our success, and that in turn helps to sustain our strong business climate.”
Louisiana Economic Development points to projects such as EPIC Piping’s advanced pipe fabrication facility and headquarters in Livingston Parish and Formosa Petrochemical Corp.’s announcement of a 1,200-job petrochemical complex in St. James Parish as wins for the state.
Despite the successes, Louisiana also dropped out of the top 10 rankings for overall project count in 2015, tumbling from No. 9 the year prior to No. 13 this year.
Among the states in the magazine’s South Central region for total projects, Louisiana ranks No. 4, down one from 2014. However, on a per capita basis, Louisiana maintains its No. 2 regional ranking.
Kentucky and Texas sat atop the Governor’s Cup list again for attracting new facilities in 2015. Texas received top honors for qualifying projects with 702 announced projects in 2015, while Kentucky ranked first for total projects per capita with 285, or 64.6 projects per million.
Site Selection’s rankings are based on the quantity of new and expanded facility projects tracked by Conway Data Inc.’s New Plant Database, which focuses on new corporate location projects that make an impact. Qualifying projects must meet one or more criteria: 20 or more new jobs have to be created, the facility must have 20,000 or more square feet of new space or a minimum investment of $1 million must be made.
Read Site Selection’s full story on the Governor’s Cup awards.
—Alexandria Burris
