Game on: Newport Beach, California-based inXile Entertainment is planning to expand outside of its headquarters for the first time since being founded in 2002 with a video game development studio in New Orleans, company officials and Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Wednesday. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the studio will create 50 new direct jobs over the next five years. The state is providing incentive package that includes the services of LED’s FastStart workforce development program. The company will also benefit from Louisiana’s Digital Interactive Media and Software Development Incentive, and is also receiving $10,000 in relocation expenses from GNO Inc. and the New Orleans Business Alliance. LED has more details.
More in store: Pin Oak Terminals is planning to make a $600 million capital investment in St. John the Baptist Parish, where the company will build a petroleum liquids storage terminal. The facility will be located along the east bank of the Mississippi River at Mount Airy, near the St. John and St. James parish line. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project will create 70 new direct jobs. Facility services planned by Pin Oak include offloading, storage, heating, blending and transfer of petroleum liquids. The company is permitted to construct up to 10 million barrels of storage and unit train loops on a 431-acre site, which is situated for convenient shipping of products by rail, pipeline, barge, ship and truck. LED has more details.
Shipshape: A new report finds the Calcasieu Ship Channel generates $5.7 billion in local revenue and is projected to produce $4.4 billion more by 2023. The American Press reports officials with the Port of Lake Charles and two Louisiana firms met Wednesday to talk about the ship channel’s economic impact on the local, state and federal levels and its anticipated growth in line with the industrial expansion projects. The channel now accounts for 46% of the Lake Charles area economy. Ed Bee, president of the Mandeville-based firm Taimerica Management, says the direct employment tied to the channel in 2014 was 36,000 workers, or 31% of the Lake Charles area workforce. With the industrial expansion and investment projects, 9,000 additional jobs are expected by 2023, a 25% increase.
