Shreveport Invests in Transportation Hub
Published Mar 10, 2008
Expanded in the late ’90s, Shreveport Regional Airport is served by five airlines.
Pressed by overseas competition, Libbey Glass appealed to Shreveport business leaders for some help. With the closing of a California plant in 2005, Libbey hoped to avert additional layoffs at its 1,000-employee Shreveport facility. That the glass maker succeeded is a testament to Northwest Louisiana’s superior transportation system.
The Caddo Industrial Board issued bonds for private financing of a $35 million deal to build Libbey a 646,000-square-foot distribution center. When Libbey meets its job-retention targets, nearly $11 million in property taxes will be saved. At the same time, the company gained a state-of-the-art logistics center that leveraged a local investment dating back to 1974.
The Libbey facility also fits with a key economic goal of the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce. “We’re pushing distribution,” says chamber President Richard Bremer. “We’re working very hard to complete Interstate 49 and I-69.” About $200 million has been secured to finish 34 miles of I-49 to Arkansas, while planning is under way for Mexico-to-Canada I-69.
For air travel, passengers can choose from five airlines at Shreveport Regional Airport. A $30 million expansion in the late 1990s added a terminal building and centralized air ticket and baggage operations.
The airport is home to a Continental Express maintenance facility that is building toward 500 jobs.
Kansas City Southern Railway and the Union Pacific offer freight service in the region. KCS will spend $80 million over three years to expand its Deramus Yard in Shreveport, even as it launches a $300 million joint venture with Norfolk Southern to upgrade a Meridian, Miss.-to-Shreveport line. The railroad also provides key links to markets in Mexico.
At the Port of Shreveport-Bossier, one of the region’s biggest projects is under way. Steelscape’s plant, with $125 million invested of a planned $200 million operation, will distribute a million tons of coiled steel annually. The steel will be obtained from both Asian and domestic sources, then processed and shipped from Shreveport to construction and manufacturing clients in the eastern and central United States.
Eric England, the port’s executive director, says $14 million in rail, road, dock and utility improvements will beef up the infrastructure. That will help leverage a $400 million annual economic impact generated by the Steelscape project.
Story by Gary Perilloux
Photo by Wes Aldridge
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