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Laissez les bon temps roulez (let the good times roll), as they say down in N'Awlins. And roll they have. 1999, in fact, was the fourth consecutive year for the state of Louisiana to have more than US$3 billion in private investment.

Louisiana ended the year and the 20th century in its usual grand style with the $700 million General Motors announcement in Shreveport. GM plans to build a new 1.5 million-sq.-ft. (139,355-sq.-m.) manufacturing plant to produce a variety of new trucks.

"They had another plant there that they were going to shut down when they decided to stop making the S-10s," says Randy Rogers, director of national marketing with the Louisiana Dept. of Economic Development (LDED). "But they've decided to build their new generation of trucks there."

GM, however, is only one of many announcements in Shreveport. "The GM plant plus other private-sector investments in [Shreveport] will result in a year that saw ground broken on $1.4 billion in private-sector projects and a projected 5,000 jobs," says Russell Autry, president of the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce. "This includes two resort hotels --Harrah's and Hollywood Casino -- totaling $300 million in investment."

Tourism has, in fact, become a primary growth engine for the state, hitting record highs in 1999 with 26 million visitors. New Orleans is at the forefront of that growth explosion. In the past two years, there have been some 30,000 rooms added in New Orleans, says Brian Schwaner, chief communications officer with the Metrovision Partnership Foundation.

Adding to New Orleans' appeal are the new Jazzland theme park, scheduled to open this year, and Harrah's Casino, which opened last fall. Together the two projects will employ around 9,000 workers.

Also in New Orleans the University of New Orleans recently opened the Naval Information Technology Center, and it has worked with Litton Avondale in developing a ship design facility. "The partnership the university has created with the shipyard offers a long-term advantage for us, because we're beginning to attract software developers that New Orleans really hasn't been known for," Schwaner says. "Also with the Naval Information Technology Center, which develops software for the military, primarily for human resources needs, we're attracting a lot of companies that are interested in that kind of incubator for developing their own software applications for the military."

Baton Rouge is also seeing significant growth. In fact, the city reported in September a 12-month job growth of 9,700 jobs, representing 71 percent of the state's total job gain in the same period. The strongest growth sector for the capital city was in the service sector, especially call center operations.

West TeleServices Corp. announced plans to add another 2,400 workers last year. West TeleServices located in Baton Rouge in 1998 with 1,600 workers. Convergys Corp. of Cincinnati announced that it will open a call center at the former Bon Marché mall, creating 1,000 jobs.

Also, Exterior Credit Recovery, "which is a very specialized type call center," says Dave Bowman, vice president of economic development with the Greater Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, has located in Baton Rouge. "Exterior Credit is from Walnut Hills, Calif., and they're going to grow up to about 800 people."

An available labor pool has helped attract major operations to the city of Monroe. Although the Monroe MSA unemployment rate is the lowest in the state (3.5 percent), the neighboring parishes provide a much larger number of workers. "The Ouachita Parish provides a number of jobs to people in the contiguous communities, and when you add in those parishes, the unemployment rate runs somewhere between 6 percent and 7 percent," says Gene Chelette, director of economic development with the Ouachita Economic Development Corp.

Chase Manhattan's recent moves are an example of just how available labor is in the market. In 1998, the company located its national record-keeping center for its home loans operations in Monroe, and in 1999 it announced plans to invest $14 million and add 300 jobs.

"We've been able to secure all of the mortgage services for Chase Manhattan in Monroe," says LDED Secretary Kevin P. Reilly. "We've survived three mergers at that operation, which is an indication that we're doing something right."

State Farm's also expanding in Monroe, with a new 330,000-sq.-ft. (30,658-sq.-m.) facility. The firm expects to add 300 new jobs.

Louisiana's success in attracting such a wide variety of businesses can be attributed to its new pro-business climate. "The state of Louisiana is making great strides to create a stronger awareness on the state's overall business climate," says J. Michael Mullis, president and CEO of J.M. Mullis Inc., a Memphis, Tenn.-based consulting firm. "We've seen a significant effort for the past three years, and the state overall has become very competitive." SS