The Florida Parishes of Louisiana

By Laura Corbin

It's a good feeling when hard work and wise investment pay off. Just ask the residents of rural Washington Parish, one of the "Florida Parishes" of southeast Louisiana. They've been paying an industrial development sales tax for the past 25 years--for the future.

The future is now.

One of Louisiana's first forays into the world of high-tech service is starting in Bogalusa, the only city in Washington Parish, which itself only has a population of 43,000. Service Zone, a young call-center company that specializes in providing computer technical services, announced in the fall of 2000 that it would locate a 300-job call center in Bogalusa's Industrial Park.

"Service Zone provides technical support outsourced by Gateway Computers," said Tommy Kurtz, director of national marketing and business development for Metrovision, the economic development agency that serves the New Orleans region of the state, which includes some of the Florida Parishes. Metrovision served as the "quarterback" for the partnership that spurred the company to make its decision to locate in Bogalusa.

Already, Service Zone has upped the number of employees it will have to 500, with the potential for another 200, said Kurtz, who is also the treasurer of the Florida Parishes Economic Development Association, a consortium of economic developers in the region.

"The Florida Parishes are the hottest growth area in the southeastern United States," said Bob Folse, director of research for Metrovision. "We are so strategically located in terms of our interstate highway access, we have decent-sized cities, a good work force, good public schools, and good universities. Our access to New Orleans' port system is an asset, as is our access to a large labor force."

Altogether, the parishes that make up the Florida Parishes--East Feliciana, West Feliciana, Livingston, St. Helena, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington--have a population of about 470,000, with an area work force population of more than 330,000, according to Metrovision officials. The unemployment rate for the region averages about 5 percent--ranging from 2 percent in some parishes to double-digits in other, more rural parishes.

Only three of the parishes--St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Livingston--have a population of more than 50,000; two parishes--West Feliciana and St. Helena--have fewer than 15,000 people each.

Geographically, the Florida Parishes are located in the southeastern part of the state, bordered on the north and east by Mississippi, on the south by Lake Ponchartrain and New Orleans, and on the west by the Greater Baton Rouge area.

Bogalusa and Washington Parish were ready for Service Zone, Kurtz said, because its leadership was committed years ago to preparing the community for economic development. "Bogalusa has a dedicated fund that made it eligible for a state match so that it could provide a facility to Service Zone rent-free," he said. "That investment will be paid off when Service Zone reaches a certain payroll generation level."

Kurtz pointed out that the state of Louisiana, by law, cannot offer direct cash to private companies as incentive for those companies to locate in the state. In communities like Bogalusa, that have their own dedicated economic development funds, companies can commit to the generation of a certain level of payroll in exchange for incentives such as rent or construction assistance.

"There are three areas in the state with an economic development tax dedicated for that purpose," said Linda Prudhomme, senior vice president for Metrovision. "They have the opportunity to take advantage of matching funds from the state. This encourages companies to locate in these areas, and we're trying to encourage other areas to do what Bogalusa has done."

In Bogalusa, Service Zone is operating from temporary quarters, the renovation of which was financed by the Washington Industrial Development Foundation, while its new building is being built. The WIDF won't be able to recover much of that renovation cost once Service Zone moves to the industrial park, but WIDF Executive Director Larry Dendry has said the expenditure will be the foundation's contribution to getting Service Zone in place and in operation in the community, and to hold them there while the permanent facility is under construction.

Service Zone will operate in a new facility in the Bogalusa Industrial Park. The 44,000-square-foot building will house a minimum of 300 workstations--maybe more in the future.

That's where the city's quarter-cent industrial sales tax comes in. It generated more than $400,000 a year and the industrial park fund had reached $3 million when Service Zone came calling-enough money to build the company's new facility.

Because of tax incentives offered by the state of Louisiana as part of its industrial inducement program, the company has assured that 90 percent of its jobs will be at least 25 hours a week and at least 75 percent of employee benefits will be paid by the company.

The state, with the assistance of the Louisiana Technical College campus in Bogalusa, has trained Service Zone employees for its temporary operations and is making them ready to begin working when the new facility opens this summer. The company will hire a work force that is nearly all full-time and with full benefits, creating a win-win scenario for the company and the community.

Bogalusa's Service Zone achievement benefits the entire Florida Parishes region, and points out how an area that is a mixture of very rural and suburban landscape can compete with the big metropolitan regions if the leadership has a vision for future growth and stays true to that vision. "Local public leadership agrees to tax themselves to generate money for economic development. This can be done in rural areas or suburban or urban areas," Prudhomme said.

Most of the Florida Parishes--called that because until the early 1810s the area was part of Florida--were rural for years; now, with the growing interstate highway system St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Livingston, in particular, have become more suburban, serving as the "bedroom community" for workers commuting to the New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas as well as to the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

"There is a wonderful quality of living nestled in these areas," said Prudhomme. "St. Tammany is the bedroom community for New Orleans, while Livingston serves Baton Rouge."

The region has seen growth, too, in the distribution arena with the location of major facilities for Wal-Mart, Winn-Dixie and Home Depot.

Food and food-processing, and ancillary operations, also are hot in the Florida Parishes. Diversified Foods, a spice/spice mix company that also is the parent company to Popeye's Fried Chicken, recently located a facility in St. Tammany.

The Florida Parishes is home to Southeastern Louisiana University (SLU) in Hammond. SLU, the fastest-growing college in Louisiana, is a major university that offers both bachelor's and master's degrees. The area also is adjacent to major centers of higher learning, such as Louisiana State University, Tulane University, the University of New Orleans, Southern University, Loyola, Dillard, Xavier, and the University of Southern Mississippi.

The region has been called "The Accessible Southeast" because of its positioning as a major transportation hub with four interstate highways (I-10, I-12, I-55 and I-59) and three major rail lines (Norfolk Southern, CSX and Illinois Central) linking the world-renowned ports of New Orleans, South Louisiana and Baton Rouge with the rest of the central and eastern United States. It also has six airports--the largest in Hammond--and the Port of South Tangipahoa in Manchac, La. The intermodal facilities at Port Manchac offer quick access to the interstates, to mainline rail service, and to the Port of New Orleans via Lighter Aboard Ship barge across Lake Ponchartrain.

Attracting Service Zone fits right into the Florida Parishes region's plan for the future, Kurtz said. "Service Zone will up the skill level here. There are lots of trends in high tech, especially in the back office and telecommunications areas. We hope to get more of Service Zone's operations, that they will expand into a hub-spoke operation where some of the operations can happen even in homes, in rural areas."

"We're building a knowledge base, too," added Prudhomme, "and that's transferable. It's exactly what we want."

Service Zone received 15,000 applications for its first 500 jobs, Kurtz pointed out. "That shows a lot of underemployment. Some people who live in the Florida Parishes, who work in New Orleans or Baton Rouge, crossing the lake and traveling an hour one-way, want to stay here to work. The quality of the work force Service Zone found in this somewhat rural, somewhat suburban area is surprisingly better than they could have found being in a metropolitan area."