New Orleans Regional Business Park adds new businesses and expands

New Orleans CityBusiness, Jun 6, 2005 by Deon Roberts

The unfortunate former NOBID acronym for the New Orleans Regional Business Park was fodder for jokes before the Louisiana Legislature changed it last summer.

It's been nearly a year since Senate Bill 545 renamed New Orleans Business and Industrial District with the more professional title of New Orleans Regional Business Park. SB 545 also drastically restructured the NORBP Board by allowing appointments from across the metro area and doing away with strictly eastern New Orleans representation.

The change apparently worked as more businesses have been drawn to the 7,000-acre park. In the past 12 months, 10 businesses have moved to the park or expanded existing operations, said Eugene Green, president of the park since 2000.

That is a pretty tremendous year. It's the busiest year since I've been here, without a doubt, in terms of all the new announcements and the businesses, Green said.

State Sen. Ann Duplessis, D-New Orleans, authored Senate Bill 545 and said it is having the intended impact.

I'm very pleased with it, she said. The growth and what has happened over a one-year period, I think, is phenomenal.

The recent developments put about 45 unused acres of the business park into commerce and represents more than $22 million in investments and about 200 new jobs.

But job gains were wiped out when the Sears credit card call center closed in 2004, which cost 280 jobs, Green said.

Clifford McQuillon, president of the NORBP Merchants Association, said no other businesses left the park in the past year.

Green is hopeful the new businesses and expansions will lead to job growth that will far surpass the Sears loss.

The legislation empowered the governor, lieutenant governor, the Port of New Orleans and the Regional Planning Commission to make appointments to the NORBP Board and increased the number of board members from 12 to 15. Formerly, only eastern New Orleans residents could sit on the board, which meant NOBID was frequently mired in politics, Green said.

Green said he can't pin the increase in jobs and new businesses to SB 545, but the new name and new board makeup did send a positive message to businesses.

When businesses look at our park now as a potential for a new location, they don't first think about the negative political climate that existed in the past, he said.

Last year, Folgers Coffee Co., which sits on 44 acres, began a $20 million equipment upgrade to improve production. Folgers calls its eastern New Orleans plant, which employs 500 people, the largest coffee roaster in the world.

Six new businesses opened in the park or announced plans to locate there in the past year.

One in the process of relocating to NORBP is CG Railway, a subsidiary of International Shipholding Corp. of New Orleans. CG Railway is building a $25 million operation to run rail ferries shipping forestry products and chemicals between Mexico and New Orleans. The company is relocating its 5-year-old operation from Mobile, Ala., to New Orleans, and the rail ferry should be operating this month, officials said.

Earlier this year, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco dedicated a new dry dock for Bollinger Gulf Repair at NORBP. The state provided $10 million to help build the facility on the Industrial Canal for Bollinger Shipyards Inc.

Green said New Orleans Cold Storage, another tenant, plans to expand by building another wharf. Construction could start within the next couple of months, he said. The company brings in food products from across the country and ships frozen products worldwide.

They want to be able to bring in three ships (instead of two) at a time. They're that busy, Green said.

Virtual Office Suites, which leases work and meeting space to home-based businesses, opened earlier this year in NORBP. Virtual Office Suites, which charges $99 a month for office space, computers and other office equipment, is based in 2,200 square feet at 13801 Old Gentilly Road in the park's Enterprise Center.

NORBP Commissioner Joe Bistes said he perceives increased interest in the park.

I can tell you being a commercial Realtor in this area, we're getting more inquiries about the park ... considering it a location to locate businesses. I think it's on the upswing, Bistes said.

But he's reserving judgment on the legislation, he said.

I think a year is just way too early to judge its effectiveness. We have high hopes and we do believe it will be an effective instrument to promote the industrial park, he said.

For at least one business, the legislation did not play a factor in the decision to move to the business park.

Home Automation Inc., which manufactures components used in controlling home security, heating and cooling from a central panel, moved Feb. 15 from the Elmwood Industrial Park in Jefferson Parish. HAI occupies the 51,000-square-foot facility Sears was in and employs about 43 people.

Jay McLellan, HAI president, said the move from a 16,000-square- foot facility in Elmwood was based on a need for more space. The Sears building was available at the right time and was the right size, he said.