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Louisiana Offers New Supersite for Auto Makers
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Louisiana has seen more than $1 billion in auto industry investment since the turn of the century for a good reason…actually for many good reasons. Now, a new supersite is giving the auto industry yet another incentive to consider the Bayou State for a major manufacturing facility.
The 1,440-acre Franklin Farm site offers the auto industry a strategic location along the Interstate 20 Southern Auto Corridor. This state-owned site promises auto manufacturers quick access to suppliers in the region via the state’s multimodal transportation infrastructure.
The Franklin Farm site is less than 50 miles from the Port of Lake Providence on the Mississippi River, which offers access to 31 states. It is also within 600 miles of Houston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Nashville, Mississippi Gulf Coast, Atlanta and St. Louis.
The Franklin Farm site gives automakers plenty room to expand their operations to meet demand. An additional 4,000 acres surrounds the core site for new facilities or to serve as acreage for auto suppliers. At the same time, the site is some 100 miles away from the nearest existing auto manufacturing plant, so automakers have a buffer that ensures labor forces don’t overlap. In fact, the state-owned Franklin Farm site is within 125 miles of over 100 auto suppliers with an abundant labor supply at hand.
Louisiana workers are first in productivity measured by value of shipments per production worker, according to the Bureau of Census in the 2002 Annual Survey of Manufacturers, and fourth most productive in the U.S. in value added per production worker. A right-to-work state, Louisiana has the least number of hours lost due to work stoppage.
Louisiana also has the highest-funded worker-training program per capita in the country. The urban state is home to dozens of colleges and universities. With campuses in several major metro areas, Louisiana State University earned recognition as “Most Diverse University” in Kaplan/Newsweek’s 2003 Hot Colleges List.
When it comes to utility infrastructure, the Franklin Farm is well-positioned. The shovel-ready site offers an unlimited water supply from the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer. It also offers electrical transmission lines, as well as natural gas lines and fiber optic on site. And Franklin Farm is well above the 100-year flood plain on Holly Ridge.
In fact, the property is located in a Renewal Community (RC) that offers lucrative tax credits and incentives. The RC initiative is designed to stimulate economic development in the nation’s most distressed communities. Areas designated as RCs receive special federal income tax treatment and other incentives of more than $5 billion in tax credits from a pool of federal funds available until December 31, 2009.
The State of Louisiana also offers generous tax incentives. The state’s Industrial Property Tax offers abatement for up to 10 years of local property taxes on new investments and annual capitalized additions. Restoration Tax Abatements offer a five-year deferred assessment on ad valorem property taxes normally assessed on renovations and improvements. In all there are multiplied millions of dollars in incentives available for the automobile industry.
Louisiana has already attracted auto industry players like General Motors GM and is receiving accolades from respected economic development monitors like the Milken Institute and Brookings Institute and national magazines like Forbes and Business Week. Louisiana is poised to announce a new auto manufacturer decision for the Franklin Farm site and continue to offer a productive, skilled workforce, plenty of incentives, customized training – and much more – to this industry.
For more information about Louisiana, call Sam Richardson at 1-800-542-2668, or send e-mail to crichar@entergy.com or visit www.teamworklouisiana.com.
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