The battles of business
Talking up his goal of fueling a friendly business climate, Gov. Bobby Jindal recently touted 34,000 new jobs and $4.5 billion in new capital investment in Louisiana since he took office in January 2008.
“We’re not immune to the recession,” he said at a news event for Orion Instruments, a Chicago-area-based, light-manufacturing company that decided to expand in Baton Rouge instead of relocating out of state.
Still, he told the company’s 70 employees and others at the firm’s current Industriplex site that Louisiana is outperforming the South and the nation for business growth, mostly by convincing employers to grow locally. He says Census numbers show that “for the first time in a long time,” people are moving into the state faster than they move out.
While the Capital Region is having some success in keeping businesses and adding new ones, the petrochemical industry faces the end of the Marathon refinery expansion (below) in Garyville, an 8,000-job project scheduled to wrap by the end of the year.
LSU economics professor Jim Richardson, pointing to data from the Louisiana Workforce Commission, says the state has lost almost 10,000 manufacturing jobs in the last year, 900 of them in the Capital Region. Dan Borné, president of the Louisiana Chemical Association, says the state will see a 5% drop in chemical employees from 2009 to 2010, including plant operators and maintenance workers, with an estimated decline from 24,100 to 22,900 workers.
Richardson says 200 area petrochemical jobs vanished, which he called “relatively stable” for the industry. To offset the Marathon losses, mostly construction jobs, he says diversity is key, from reopening paper mills to adding arts-and-entertainment jobs. “That’s what job creation is all about, there’s a lot of little things adding up in the end,” he says. “It’s usually not one big company coming in.”
Here are some of the recent local business wins:
Orion Instruments
The maker of liquid level indicators used in pharma, biotech, petrochem and other fields is sticking with Baton Rouge, thanks to local and state tax incentives and other financial breaks. Chad Cornett, director of business development for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, says Orion, which ships half its products overseas, “shows other companies that we’re open for business worldwide. For manufacturers who might look at this area as not conducive to international shipments or receiving, this is one that breaks that barrier.” Keeping the company local will retain 70 jobs, add 35 new ones and indirectly create 61 more, according to the governor’s office. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the expansion will generate $4.1 million in new state tax revenues and nearly $2.8 million in new local tax revenue over 15 years. Don Sanders, general manager for Orion, says the company opened shop on Sept. 11, 2001, but withstood the tragedy of the terrorist attacks that occurred on that day, the 2005 hurricanes and the typical “battles of business” to achieve $17.5 million in 2008 revenue.
TransGenRx
The biotech firm that spun off from research at the LSU AgCenter announced last month that the company signed a $30 million deal to produce human-growth hormone for a pharmaceutical company based in Argentina. Laboratorio Pablo Cassara SRL will buy the human-growth hormone to use in medicines sold in Central and South America and the Middle East, says Richard Cooper, executive vice president with TransGenRx. Cooper says this is the first contract for TransGenRx, which was founded in 2002 and produces pharmaceutical proteins. “We’ve been refining our process and getting our techniques for cell culture down,” Cooper says. TransGenRx has 36 full-time employees and 15 student workers. Cooper says he hopes the contract will lead to more hiring.
Huiheng Medical
The Chinese medical-device company has decided to build a manufacturing plant in Baton Rouge to produce radiotherapy equipment for global distribution, Chief Executive Officer Xiaobing Hui said last month. Huiheng is based in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong. The proposed plant would create 200 to 300 jobs with an average salary of $65,000 to $75,000, with an estimated revenue of $300 million per year. Hui, through translator and Baton Rouge businessman Eugene Ji, says the decision was made based on a face-to-face meeting with Mayor Kip Holden in China this year and several follow-ups. Huiheng would locally make its Whole Body Gamma Knife, which zaps tumors with radiation. Hui expects to move forward with a Baton Rouge facility in mid-2010 if the technology receives approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “We could be the first place in the United States where this type of equipment would be distributed,” Holden says.
Dynamic Fuels, Shintech
A $150 million Dynamic Fuels plant being built in Geismar will turn animal waste and grease into biodiesel and jet fuel. The company recently received a $30 million tax break from the state Board of Commerce, helping to keep it from relocating to Texas. PVC-maker Shintech’s $1.9 billion chemical plant expansion in Plaquemine is 60% the size of Marathon but could provide an important revenue stream. The three-phase expansion on the company’s integrated chlor-alkali facility is expected to finish in 2010 and create 150 full-time jobs.—Todd R. Brown
Mass appeal
Add to the list of unique Louisiana institutions the LSU Law Center, which requires the most hours of any American law school to graduate, mandates a summer session on top of the typical three-year course load and has a lower grade-point average for top-performing students than peer schools.
Those things stand to change if a discussion among students, faculty and administrators that led to a recent student advisory committee’s call to standardize requirements leads to a board-approved overhaul.
“We care about making the school as appealing to outstanding students as we can,” Chancellor Jack Weiss says. “We’re not going to compromise our educational program. The ideal is to combine outstanding legal education with a broad appeal.”
The Paul M. Hebert Law Center wound up with several unusual attributes in part because of a former policy of allowing in more first-year students than would graduate comparable to law schools elsewhere, Weiss says. Roughly until the late ’90s, he says, 30% of first-year LSU law students did not continue on, compared with an attrition rate of about 10% in the last few years thanks to less liberal admissions.
LSU Law’s 3.2 GPA for its top 10% of students contrasts with a 3.6 GPA at peer schools, which Weiss says is the result of “a period when it was thought important to treat students more restrictively than we feel is currently necessary.” He says the harsh grading curve gives grads a competitive disadvantage in pursuing jobs.
Among other changes that a student bar group recommended, and that Weiss hopes to bring before the school board at a meeting in December or—more likely—January, are doing away with a mandatory summer course requirement but retaining summer classes in Baton Rouge and France, lowering the number of hours to graduate from 97 to 94, easing the attendance policy and combining two categories of upper-class course requirements.
Civil law classes appeal to students who plan to practice in Louisiana, Weiss says, while global law classes appeal to those who plan to practice elsewhere. Instead of making students take a minimum of classes in each category, Weiss says students could pick and choose based on their career paths.—T.R.B.
Cutting edge
Imagine waiting for an act to start at Voodoo Fest and having a hankering for some festival food. Unfamiliar with the festival grounds? No problem. Just whip out your iPhone, point it anywhere and the Layar Augmented Reality app will tell you everything you need to know about what lies ahead, including the location of other stages, the respective acts playing on them—even the location of the beer tent.
Louisiana-based Zehnder Communications debuted the “Voodoo Experience” Layar in October, and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Zehnder says his company is in talks to create a similar Layar for Jazz Fest in the spring.
“We hope this is just the tip of the iceberg,” he says. “The potential in digital technology is immense.”
A Layar is downloadable for the app, pulls all the information on a specialized topic and presents it in an audio-visual format.
Zehnder is one of five U.S. companies and 50 companies worldwide that has received the Layar patent. Elliott Adams, director of digital interactive media at Louisiana Economic Development, says Zehnder’s achievement is an example of how digital media can be a viable part of the state’s economy.
“Augmented reality is a booming segment of the gaming market,” he says. “That Zehnder can add value to the Voodoo Experience for its attendees is more proof that digital media’s footprint in Louisiana’s economy has the potential to be vast.”—E.J.
Fame and fortune
Nominations now are being accepted for the 2010 Business Awards and Hall of Fame banquet, scheduled for April 20, 2010 and presented by Business Report and Junior Achievement. The categories include: Business Hall of Fame Laureate [for a lifetime of achievement], Company of the Year [under 100 employees], Company of the Year [100 or more employees], Young Business Person of the Year [40 or under] and Business Person of the Year. To nominate your company, yourself, a client, vendor or friend, visit batonrouge.ja.org or call 928-7008. The deadline for nominations is Dec. 31. Franklin Press Direct Mail & Printing and Capital One Bank are banquet sponsors.
ExecutiveSpotlight
Gene Todaro
Proprietor
Marcello’s Wine Bar Café
Hometown: New Orleans
“I have to have eye candy,” says Gene Todaro, proprietor of Marcello’s Wine Bar Café. Todaro is a self-described collector, but not a major one, he says. “I find that art is good as an escape. It is provocative. I like thought-provoking visuals.” That’s why Todaro isn’t afraid to spend a little on art like those he is pictured with at Ann Connelly Fine Art on Perkins Road for himself and for the walls of his wine bar.
But Todaro believes art is more than just good for adorning the walls, he also thinks the act of creating it is an important way to provide an outlet for troubled youth. “I think it improves the community,” he says. “It is a good avenue for youth to express themselves in a positive way. I think art is overlooked to get their point and their feelings across in a positive way.”
Want to read more from Todaro’s Q&A? Click here.
SavingGreen
From pink to green
Think about installing insulation, and, to this day, The Pink Panther theme probably pops into your head. Yet the building industry offers a surprising range of green alternatives to the pink stuff, from recycled newspapers and sugar-cane foam, to mushroom spore mats and shredded blue jeans. Not all the options are cost-competitive with the pink fiberglass fluff, but some offer a less toxic choice for self-installation.
Blown-in cellulose, made from newsprint treated with fire-retardant chemicals, is close in cost to fiberglass mats, essentially thinly blown glass that can irritate eyes, mucous membranes and lungs. Both require protective gear during installation, but cellulose can create a tighter airflow seal and can keep in heat or cold with fewer gaps.
Ed Lozes, owner of Green Apple Foam Insulation, says the spray foam he uses (below) can be made from soybeans, sugar cane or polyurethane, derived from petroleum. Foam insulation can qualify for a Stimulus bill tax credit of up to $1,500 and a state Home Energy Rebate Option of up to $2,000.
Lozes says the foam reduces energy consumption by also eliminating gaps, requiring a less-powerful air conditioner to keep a home cool. “Here in the South, we have summer eights months of the year,” he says.
Michael Gatz, co-owner of the Green Building Shop on Corporate Boulevard, champions UltraTouch insulation made with leftover scraps from blue-jean factories. Although the material is considered costly, online a bag of 127 square feet of the cotton insulation can be had for $72, while 88 feet of fiberglass insulation on the Ace Hardware Web site costs $70. Denim can be self-installed.
“It’s definitely much healthier, much better for sound, a much better insulation value than fiberglass,” says Kurt Buchert, owner of Green Bean Insulation of New Orleans. There, he estimates that the use of blown-in foam finally has surpassed fiberglass.
“The one good thing that came out of Katrina down here, everybody had to rebuild, so people did a lot of research,” he says. “Baton Rouge has been a bit slower to catch on to the green movement.”—T.R.B.
FastForward
The upper end
It wasn’t a story that made a great deal of home-owners in the upper echelon very happy. Business Report’s Jan. 27, 2009, cover story, “10 most expensive home sales of 2008,” listed sellers, buyers, addresses and, well, all sorts of details that some people in the community weren’t thrilled to see in print—even though most of it’s public record.
More important, however, is that the package revealed the slowdown of home sales with a value of at least $1.2 million. In 2007, there were four sales of more than $2 million; there were just two in 2008.
Quita Cutrer, an agent with Burns & Co. Realtors who covers the “upper-end market,” says the decrease could come from sellers not using the Greater Baton Rouge Multiple Listing Service. “A lot of people opt out of MLS” because of they don’t want their information revealed, she says. “So you’re not getting an accurate picture of the market.”
If the 2009 numbers are accurate, MLS reveals sales of homes above $1 million were slower for most of the year. Eight homes have sold for more than $1 million so far this year; 18 were sold in 2008. The highest sale price this year is about $1.5 million for a home on Pikes Lane off Moss Side Lane; the highest sale price last year was $2.3 million for a five-bedroom, five-bath home on Oak Alley off Old Hammond Highway.
The neighborhoods in which these sales are occurring has shifted, too. In 2008, Bocage Lake led with three sales in the top 10. This year, no more than one million-dollar home has been sold in what are considered the parish’s high-end subdivisions.
But Cutrer says there still are some major sales in the works. “We have the old [Nick] Saban house under contract, which is priced at $4.8 million,” she says. “That’s supposed to close in the next few weeks. And that’s a cash buyer.”
“Last year was horrible for the upper end,” she says.
But buyers appear more certain they’ve seen the bottom and are ready to start opening their pocketbooks again—even if they don’t want everyone to know about it.—Olivia Watkins
InMemoriam: Dave Treen [1928-2009]
Requiem for a reformer
Former Gov. Dave Treen has moved into the Big Mansion in the clouds, but will forever have his place in Louisiana’s history books. In 1980, he became the first Republican governor to serve the state since Reconstruction and an archetype for the reform-governor model. Treen continued to send ripples throughout the Louisiana Hayride up until his death on Oct. 29 at the age of 81.
In fact, during his final months, Treen graciously wrote the foreword to an upcoming biography on Edwin Edwards, the jailed Democrat who wrested a second term from Treen in the notorious campaign of 1983. And this past June, Treen inserted himself in the politics of current Gov. Bobby Jindal. Along with three other former governors, Treen decried the administration’s proposed cuts to education and requested a reduction. Jindal obliged.
The Edwards foreword and Jindal’s flip-flop were proof that Treen’s insight and influence were valuable long after he left office, and just as important in recent years, according to former Gov. Buddy Roemer. “It was about what he did when he wasn’t in office, working with Methodist organizations, higher education and making efforts to clean up the state,” Roemer says. “He will be missed in a big way.”
While it doesn’t get much play among modern historians, Treen did leave a noticeable mark while in office when it comes to promoting minorities within state government. It was likewise an indication that Treen’s political philosophy was flexible as times changed. Even though he was a member of the States’ Rights Party, which was founded in the late 1950s to fight racial integration, Treen later went on to later appoint more African-Americans to state office during his term than any previous governor.
His Christian faith was a chief driver that led him to tirelessly fight for a presidential pardon to get Edwards released from prison, where he’s serving out federal racketeering charges. Treen also stood up for former Insurance Commissioner Jim Brown, who was convicted on what many, including Treen, called flimsy and unfair charges from the FBI. “When you became a friend of Dave Treen’s, you remained a friend,” Brown says. “He defended me every step of the way.”
As governor, Treen created the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts in Natchitoches for gifted and talented students, and he also established the Department of Environmental Quality. In 1999, it appeared as if Treen would make a comeback, by way of a U.S. House seat, but he lost by only 1,800 votes. Speculation that he would run once again continued in the following years, up until Treen’s brief flirtation with running for the congressional seat left vacant by Jindal in 2008.
The last four years were emotionally trying for Treen, who lost his wife Dodie in 2005. Lloyd Lunceford, Treen’s son-in-law, says the former governor now leaves behind a legacy the two crafted together, a way of approaching politics that many in elected office today should take heed of before it’s too late. “His passing is a great loss to the state. He was a man of deep conservative beliefs and the value of a free-enterprise system and limited government, and as a bipartisan elder statesman that enjoyed cherished friendships on both sides of the aisle,” Lunceford says. “I will miss him dearly.”—Jeremy Alford
Fortnight November 4 – 17
November 4 – Small- and mid-sized business owners will hear from area leaders at the “Growing Your Business in the New Ascension” conference from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Elegant Affairs in Gonzales. Marilyn Moats-Kennedy, the event’s featured speaker, will address the issue of “Managing Change: Understanding the Demographics of the Evolving Workplace.” More information is available at eatel.com/newascension.
November 5 – On this day in 2008 – Business Report’s story “Leaders figure out next step on bond issue” explained that Mayor Kip Holden’s $989 million bond issue fell short of passing by just 3,071 votes. A year later, Holden’s pet project now is down to $901 million, but the battle to see it passed is stronger than ever. Voters will take to the polls Nov. 14. For stories on the bond issue, click here and here.
November 5 – On this day in 2007 – A Daily Report story announced the state treasury’s attempt to allow taxpayers to view how state government was doling out the dollars. The “Louisiana Spending Watch,” as State Treasurer John Kennedy explained it, was supposed to be a real-time clock and account of where money was being spent. Two years later, that same spending watch is, well, not much of a watch. The most recent update to the Web site is a static pie chart of the 2007-08 fiscal-year spending.
November 5 – On this day in 2007 – Business Report Executive Editor JR Ball wrote his biweekly column on the “much-hyped, much-delayed, much-redesigned” RiverPlace condominiums. The downtown project, Ball said, was supposed to be in the works by November according to the project’s owner, Richard Preis. While there was no “steel in the ground” in 2007, 2008 or late into 2009, Preis has said the project remains alive.
November 14 – The Capital Area Corporate Recycling Council’s CACRC Garage Sale is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the organization’s downtown warehouse on St. Philip Street. The sale of recycled and refurbished computers and equipment is part of CACRC’s support of America Recycles Day. For more details, see cacrc.com.
November 16 – Golfers and caddies will tee up at the ninth annual Louisiana Legacy Golf Event at Country Club of Louisiana. The tournament benefits Junior Achievement. Details about the event can be found at batonrouge.ja.org.
BusinessOfPolitics
For the ladies
Women voters could play a crucial role next year as U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-Metairie, (top) defends his seat against Congressman Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville (bottom). Particularly, the demographic could help Melancon with polling and fundraising. Last month, Vitter posted a 10-point lead over Melancon in a widely reported poll—and a 2-to-1 money advantage after the third quarter.
Melancon also trailed 47%-35% in a Southern Media and Opinion Research poll. Among women voters, the gap closed to 44%-39%, with 17% undecided.
Melancon’s campaign already is working to chip away at Vitter’s edges. For starters, Vitter’s admitted “sin” and his links to a Washington, D.C.-based escort service do no favors for the junior senator. But Vitter also has votes that can be singled out, such as his recent opposition to the Lilly Ledbetter Act of 2009, which supports equal pay.
More recently, Vitter has taken it on the chin for voting against the so-called Franken Amendment. It’s now part of the Defense Department Appropriations Bill, and it’s meant to protect women’s right to report a rape. While the House version of the bill doesn’t include the Franken Amendment, Melancon has vowed to get it tacked on—if he can.
Gassy business
A bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers has created a caucus that’s dedicated solely to advocating and promoting the use of domestic natural gas. The Congressional Natural Gas Caucus is the first association of its kind and includes two members from Louisiana: Rep. John Fleming, R-Minden (top), and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-New Orleans (bottom).
Landrieu will serve as the caucus’ first co-chairperson, alongside Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. She says the production of natural gas can directly contribute to producing jobs in Louisiana. “A reliable and affordable supply of U.S. energy has profound impacts on every sector of our economy and is the backbone of the U.S. employment base,” Landrieu says.
Among other roles, Landrieu says the caucus would serve to investigate and debate the economic and national security implications of the newfound abundance of natural gas in the United States. That charge has implications for the Bayou State—the Haynesville Shale in north Louisiana is positioned to become the nation’s top-producing, natural-gas field within the next six years.
The caucus’ timing couldn’t be better, especially since the Senate is giving more attention to natural gas in its climate-change legislation, which is more widely known as the cap-and-trade bill. The legislation includes some financial incentives for natural gas-fired electricity. If adopted, cap-and-trade is also expected to increase demand for natural gas.—J.A.
Jenkins’ new gig
William Jenkins, former LSU president and chancellor, has been hired by Mayor Kip Holden as an educational consultant. Jenkins was hired to serve as a liaison with LSU, Southern University and Baton Rouge Community College, coordinating research between the institutions and Baton Rouge’s sister cities. Holden says it was a natural to hire Jenkins, who is a well-respected educator and community leader. “He can bring all these tools to the table,” Holden says. Jenkins also will work on educational projects with the East Baton Rouge Parish School System and serve as an economic-development liaison with the Baton Rouge Area Chamber. “We want to broaden the appeal of the mayor’s office to work with education and cultural developments,” Holden says. Jenkins was hired under a $20,000 special-services contract that runs from Sept. 1-Dec. 31. Holden says he wants to talk to Jenkins in the next few weeks about extending the contract.—Timothy Boone and Todd R. Brown
Access granted
The city-parish has been awarded a $1 million federal grant to build industrial access roads for a new Aviation Business Park at Metro Airport. The grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce requires the city-parish to put up a $479,000 match that will cover upgrading an existing roadway, building an addition and moving a remote transmitter receiver facility. Plans are to start construction in the spring, and the work should take about nine months, says Jim Caldwell, marketing and air service manager for the airport. The Aviation Business Park would be located on 300 acres off Blount Road on the northern edge of the airport. Caldwell says the grant is a “very preliminary step” toward building the business park. A design team is planning the first building in the park, a 51,000-square-foot national preparedness center. The center could serve as an emergency-operations center for federal agencies. Caldwell says the plan is to take construction bids on the first building in early 2010.—T.B.
ONTHEBEAT
Go baby, go: East Baton Rouge Parish had the fifth-largest employment gain in the first quarter among large U.S. counties, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. East Baton Rouge added 900 jobs from March 2008 to March 2009, a 0.3% gain. The only counties to add more jobs in the quarter were Montgomery County, Texas, in metro Houston; Fort Bend County, Texas, also in metro Houston; Bronx, N.Y.; and Anchorage, Alaska.
A star is born: Former legislative auditor Dan Kyle has been named chief financial officer for Southern Star Amusement. Southern Star plans to build a Nickelodeon-themed amusement park at the site of the former Six Flags in New Orleans East. As CFO, Kyle will oversee accounting practices for Southern Star, direct its financial strategy and prepare budgets and audits.
Musical chairs: LSU plans to replace all of the existing seats in the lower bowl of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center and shift student seating over the next 18 months. Sections 101, 102, 103, 106, 107 and 108 will be upgraded with new permanent seats this season, while the rest of the lower bowl will be fixed up in time for the 2010-11 season. Also for the 2010-11 season, the student section will be moved to behind the east basket.
Big spender: Amedisys forked out $1 million for the construction of a new complex for LSU’s E.J. Ourso College of Business. Eli Jones, dean of the E.J. Ourso College of Business, says Amedisys had pledged to make the donation over four years, but paid it off early. “That says a lot about the character of the leaders at Amedisys,” he says. LSU had to raise $30 million in order to get another $30 million in matching state funds for the new business school building. Jones says the school has raised its share through donations, pledges and internal loans and hopes to break ground by early 2010.
Farewell to four: Regions Financial Corp. has announced plans to close four Capital Region branches in a cost-saving move. The locations on Plank Road [Brownsfield], South Sherwood Forest Boulevard, Highland Road [University] and in Prairieville [Galvez] will shut down by the end of January. The Birmingham, Ala.-based bank is consolidating 121 branches across the South, including 11 in Louisiana.
Come together, right now: The holding companies of United Community Bank of Gonzales and Community Bank of Raceland are considering a merger. The two holding companies have a majority of the same shareholders, says Mike Riche, who is CEO for the banks. The board should make a decision on the merger within the next month. Community Bank has nine branches and $353 million in deposits, while United Community Bank has six branches and $128 million in deposits, according to the FDIC.
Own a bit of history: LSU baseball fans will be able to buy everything from seats to infield dirt from the old Alex Box Stadium through a new memorabilia Web site, AlexBoxAuctions.net. Gold Seat-holders will be able to buy their seats from the stadium for $500 each, while bleacher seats are available for $199 each.
Cozy cottages
Capstone Development has started work on The Cottages of Baton Rouge, a 382-unit student-housing complex on Ben Hur Road and Nicholson Drive. The development, which will take up 50 acres, will have nearly 1,300 bedrooms, including waterfront units. “This is all based off of the student population and the need for nice places,” says Amanda Wallis, the senior vice president for Birmingham, Ala.-based Capstone’s Cottages Division. Capstone developed the Fieldhouse, a condominium development near Tiger Stadium, catering to the LSU game-day crowd.
The Cottages will be a mix of housing units, ranging from one- to five-bedroom units, spread among cottages and larger “lodge buildings.” The development will feature a clubhouse, pool and bocce court. Wallis wouldn’t give the price tag of the entire development, but says the first 159 units, totaling 583 bedrooms, will be open by fall 2010.—T.B.
Facelift
The exterior of Ruth’s Chris Steak House is being remodeled to go along with recent upgrades to the restaurant interior. The restaurant will feature stucco on the outside, along with shutters, gas lanterns and an awning from the front door to the valet, says Chris Bachman, general manager of Ruth’s Chris. “We’re trying to keep things fresh,” says Bachman, noting that the outside of the popular steakhouse hasn’t been changed since it opened in the early 1980s. The work should be completed in five or six weeks, just in time for the holidays. This will complete a $250,000 renovation, which included refurbishing woodwork, replacing wallpaper and ceiling tiles, and overhauling the restrooms.—T.B.
Going down, way down
While the number of building permits is down by 10.6% in East Baton Rouge Parish when compared to 2008, the value of the work is running far behind last year’s pace. Through the first nine months of the year, the value of all work permitted in the parish is about $274 million, compared with nearly $558 million permitted through September 2008. The economic slowdown has caused a dropoff in the number of big construction projects. Through the first nine months of the year, the number of projects dropped from 18,767 in 2008 to 16,784.
Helping [government] hand
A report from the National Association of Realtors says a federal-tax credit for first-time homebuyers led to 5,000 additional sales in Louisiana. Overall, the NAR says 24,000 homebuyers in Louisiana will use the $8,000 credit. Nationally, the Home Buyer and Seller survey shows that first-time sales accounted for 51.5% of all home transactions, compared with 45.1% in 2008. “Given that tight credit markets and poor job conditions have dominated markets this year, one could expect that the share of first-time buyers would have been much lower than 40% without the help of the tax credit,” says NAR. Nationally, the tax credit is expected to lead to 327,000 to 365,000 additional home sales. The credit is set to expire on Dec. 1; NAR is pressing for the program to be extended into 2010 in order to help the fledgling real-estate recovery.
