The Advocate – GONZALES — Ascension economic development officials have wrapped up months of largely closed-door planning efforts to turn a swath of agricultural fields on the parish’s west bank into a 17,000-acre heavy industry park. Under the long-range plan, the rural pocket of cane fields along the Mississippi River north of La. 1 and… Read more »

5.4.15 Up from No. 4 in the U.S. last year, Louisiana ranks among top seven nationally for economic development performance for sixth consecutive year BATON ROUGE, La. — Today, Site Selection rated Louisiana’s economic development efforts No. 2 in the nation in its ranking of Top Competitive States for 2014. In its evaluation of economic development performance… Read more »

Gonzales, Louisiana – Crown Crafts Infant Products, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Crown Crafts, Inc. (NASDAQ-CM: CRWS), announced today that it has entered into a licensing agreement with Petunia Pickle Bottom for luxury infant bedding, blankets, bibs and bath products. Petunia Pickle Bottom is a vibrant lifestyle brand known around the world for its… Read more »

The Advocate – Summit Electric Supply has begun construction on a facility at 3348 S. Burnside in Gonzales. The facility will include 50,000 square feet of warehouse space — nearly twice the capacity of Summit’s current Gonzales location on West Orice Roth Road. The move also allows Summit to expand its counter sales area, offer… Read more »

BATON ROUGE, La., March 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Entergy Louisiana, LLC has signed a five-year agreement to provide an additional 60 megawatts of electricity to power CF Industries’ expanding nitrogen facility in Donaldsonville, one of many projects that are part of the industrial renaissance underway in Louisiana. CF Industries is on track to complete by early… Read more »

The Advocate – Renewable Energy Group, the owner of a Geismar biodiesel refinery, reported its fourth-quarter profit rose to $69.4 million, or $1.61 cents per share, up from $30.1 million, or 80 cents per share, a year ago. Renewable said its results were affected due to the full year net effect from the 2014 federal… Read more »

The Advocate – Louisiana ranked ninth on Site Selection magazine’s annual rankings of expanding and new projects in 2014. At the same time, Baton Rouge was tied for second among metro areas with a population of between 200,000 to 1 million. In 2014, 38 companies expanded or located to metro Baton Rouge, a performance that… Read more »

The Advocate — A developer plans to build an upscale mixed-use community of retail stores, apartments and homes on a former cattle ranch, which is the largest piece of undeveloped property in Gonzales. Lafayette-based Southern Lifestyle Development has a contract to purchase the property, situated on La. 44 just south of I-10, for $8 million and… Read more »

The Advocate — As state legislators prepare to consider the future of the state’s generous film production incentives this spring, Ascension Parish government is betting on continued interest in movie production in the Bayou State. The Parish Council last week created a new advisory Film Commission and a new permit and fee regime for movies shot… Read more »

The Advocate – CF Industries’ planned $2.1 billion expansion at its Donaldsonville nitrogen complex is on schedule and will begin producing urea, the most popular nitrogen fertilizer source, in the third quarter. The Donaldsonville complex was already the world’s largest nitrogen plant. The plant produces urea, urea-ammonium nitrate, or UAN, and anhydrous ammonia urea —… Read more »