Moving Forward

Government and development leaders say opportunities for economic and cultural development in St. Landry Parish don’t end at the parish lines. The parish has much to offer, they say, but when the parishes that are the heart of south Louisiana work together each of them becomes hugely more attractive.

Parish President Bill Fontenot made that point when he was sworn to his second term in office in mid-January.  St. Landry economic development director Bill Rodier has preached that message since coming to St. Landry two years ago. And Jason El Koubi, CEO of the newly formed One Acadiana regional development organization, says central Acadiana has to work together if we are to keep up with, or outdistance, other regions competing for investments and jobs.

Although St. Landry has many geographic and cultural advantages, the parish’s economic future depends upon its associations with other parishes in the Acadiana area, Fontenot said in his inaugural speech.

“If we don’t regionalize, then we don’t have economic growth. This is an era of regionalization, which means you can’t do it alone anymore as one or two parishes,” Fontenot said. “You need, as a parish, to be part of a regional structure. If you are, you will carry a stronger voice. You can’t be St. Landry Parish, standing on an island.”

El Koubi says the regional approach gives the entire area clout, whether for attracting an industrial client or capturing the attention of legislators and policy makers.

“We know as a region, we’ll move farther, faster when we focus on working as one,” he said. He credited Fontenot’s leadership and the partnership of St. Landry economic development as being “integral to the creation of One Acadiana and the strides we’ve made as a nine-parish regional organization.”

One Acadiana brings together business leaders and development organizations from St. Landry, Evangeline, Lafayette, Acadia, Jefferson Davis, St. Martin, Vermilion, Iberia, and St. Mary Parishes.

“We realize that leveraging partnerships across parish lines gives Acadiana a bigger voice at the Capitol to move forward on critical priorities that will unlock our long-term potential for growth,” El Koubi said, and statistics put together by One Acadiana emphasize the point.

The association notes that Lafayette, the most populous of the nine parishes, has a population of about 231,000, but that the parishes together have nearly 681,000 people. That’s a lot more votes for legislators to take into consideration. The region working together can influence twice as many state legislators and three times as many congressmen that any parish working alone.

Simple geography also argues for a regional approach; the nine-parish area has 6,262 square miles of land suitable for all sorts of commercial purposes. The geographical diversity within the region means that there is a site suitable for practically any enterprise.

St. Landry has been an active and productive partner in the One Acadiana coalition, Rodier notes, and will continue to be.

“All the different areas of Acadiana have unique offerings in geography, culture, business sectors, transportation, and in other ways,” he said. “When we look at these collectively they provide a great value. When you combine these assets with the tremendous staff that Jason and One Acadiana have, it’s easy to see how collaboration makes sense to bring regional economic development to the next level,” he said.

The collaboration is paying off, and one of its biggest successes so far has been in St. Landry Parish.

El Koubi said in a recent interview that One Acadiana is “in active discussions with literally dozens of businesses that are considering locating or expanding in Acadiana. The pipeline of prospective businesses is growing, and some of it will materialize.”

As an example of a successful collaborative effort, he pointed to the announcement in September that Hazlewood Energy Hub will develop a $400 million crude storage and blending complex near Port Barre. He also said that the success of Noble Plastics here is one of the stories that can be used to show a prospective company that this is a good place to do business.

Those examples show that the Acadiana-wide approach works and also that St. Landry has the resources to be a prime player in regional development and a substantial beneficiary of it, in Rodier’s estimation

At the end of January Jim Bourgeois, One Acadiana’s vice president of business development, said he’s been engaged in preliminary or advanced talks on 38 projects that include manufacturing and food processing companies, digital media, alternative energy, petrochemical plants, service industry companies and distribution centers.

“Some of those businesses are looking very hard at St. Landry,” Rodier said. “Some will find neighboring parishes better suited for their needs. But every one of them that comes to south Louisiana will benefit all of us in one way or another—building tax base, bringing in new people and resources, adding political and economic impact, and, most important, building momentum for more to come.”