High five: Five builders have been selected to build The Settlement on Shoe Creek, a new development by Lafayette-based Southern Lifestyle Development that’s going up in Central. The builders are: Bardwell Construction Co., Gafford Builders, and Rabalais Homes, all of Baton Rouge, as well as LR Mitchell Construction & Development and Shivers Brothers of LA, both of Lafayette. The Settlement on Shoe Creek will consist of 479 single-family homes, 250 multi-family homes, a 100-unit assisted living facility, and more than 100,000 square feet of commercial/retail space. The development is going up on a 150 acre site.
Under contract: A new offshore contract for Danos could mean an extra year of job security for some of the oilfield service company’s workers in south Louisiana, The Courier reports. Gary-based Danos will perform welding and other services for the Hess oil company’s Stampede tension-leg platform in the Gulf. The project will include providing support such as project management, construction, scaffolding and coatings services. More than 100 Danos employees at various locations will work for the next year on the project. Stampede is one of the largest undeveloped fields in the Gulf, about 115 miles south of Port Fourchon, and has an estimated 300 to 350 million barrels of recoverable oil. Read the full story.
Fewer than expected: America’s entrepreneurs might not be living up to their reputation as job creators, Inc. reports. According to new research from the JPMorgan Chase Institute, the median U.S. small business adds fewer than one full-time employee each year. The institute’s study of payroll records from more than 45,000 of the bank’s small-business customers finds 16% lost a full-time employee in 2015, and just 20% added more than two. Small businesses are often credited with providing half of all American workers’ jobs. But while 89% of U.S. companies with paid employees in 2014 had fewer than 20 on staff, those businesses employed only 17% of all workers at companies with paid employees. Read the full story.
