Shreveport Economy Flows on the Red River
Published Mar 11, 2008
The Louisiana Boardwalk in Bossier City is a $200 million entertainment and shopping destination.
Vivian Andrews welcomes 200,000 guests a year to her home-away-from-home on the Red River.
And gazing at what the stars hold for 2007, she’s guessing that guest count is about to explode at the Sci-Port Discovery Center. Supernova status awaits the center as it opens a $12 million planetarium and space walk addition in late 2006.
“It’s indeed a jewel here on the riverfront,” say Andrews, the discovery center’s chairwoman. “We consider it a cornerstone of economic as well as educational development in this region.”
Originally a $7 million interactive museum when it launched in 1998, the community-funded Sci-Port will more than double to 67,000 square feet and expand on a theme of eclectic hands-on adventures in math and science. So diverting for families is this factory of fun, “they don’t realize they’re learning about gravity and other principles,” Andrews says, citing more than 100 exhibits and a 185-seat domed IMAX Theater.
Sci-Port’s expansion is but one of many economic magnets flourishing on the river that runs through a Shreveport-Bossier City metro area of nearly a half-million people. The 2005-2006 years will come to be known as a watershed epoch for what’s now one of the South’s hottest cities.
Consider the following attractions opening in that span:
– Riverview, Shreveport’s $12.5 million riverfront recreation area, features the $6 million Riverview Park developed by the City of Shreveport with assistance from the Red River Waterway Commission. Aquatic features include jets of water that bathe guests in brilliant hues of light and music. Other Riverview attractions include a 300-foot floating boat dock, a waterfall and amphitheater and the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway Regional Visitor Center, named for the U.S. senator who transformed the Red River Basin’s port and recreational profile.
– The new $100 million Shreveport Convention Center, with 350,000 square feet and theater seating for 2,000, can accommodate 1,500 diners for banquets. It offers 10 large meeting rooms and 11 loading docks.
– Under construction is a 300-room Hilton Hotel slated to open beside the convention center in 2007.
– Across the river on the Bossier City banks, the 600,000-square-foot Louisiana Boardwalk is a lifestyle center of more than 70 retail stores flanked by a Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World and one of the riverfront’s five casinos. Included are outlet shops and an entertainment district anchored by a 14-screen cinema. Trolleys, a carousel and marina complement the nearly $200 million project that got a boost when city officials found the land and partnered with developers on a parking garage.
“I think the city of Bossier has done an outstanding job with the development of the Louisiana Boardwalk,” says Richard Bremer, president of the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce. “You put the whole package together, and it’s really a nice fit for the area.”
The quality of life features enhanced an already thriving capital investment scene in Shreveport-Bossier. GM has built light trucks here since 1981 but recently invested more than $1 billion to produce mid-sized Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickups, along with the Hummer H3.
Libbey Glass is building a 650,000-square-foot distribution center on Interstate 20, and Steelscape plans to process 1 million tons of coated coiled steel annually in a $200 million project at the Port of Shreveport-Bossier.
“We’ve been told by the Louisiana Department of Economic Development that we basically are leading the state with respect to economic development,” Bremer says.
Story by Gary Perilloux
Photo by Wes Aldridge
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