Quick take
- The Site Selectors Guild named 26 sites in 10 states in its latest REDI Sites round, announced at its Fall Forum in Cleveland. Fourteen are Louisiana Economic Development sites.
- Minden: the Industrial Drive Minden Webster Site was rated Silver, one of six Silver sites in the round.
- Monroe: the Pecanland Site was rated Gold, one of 15 Gold sites in the round.
- The rating grades how ready a site is for a company to build: utilities, ownership and zoning, environmental work, ease of development and logistics.
Two north Louisiana industrial sites picked up national ratings this week that are meant to show companies how close they are to ready for construction. The Site Selectors Guild, a group of consultants who help companies pick locations, rated the Industrial Drive Minden Webster Site in Minden Silver and the Pecanland Site in Monroe Gold in its latest round of REDI Sites designations.
The round named 26 sites in 10 states, and 14 of them are Louisiana Economic Development sites, the guild says, the first state portfolio to go through the program at that scale. LED also announced the Louisiana results. The designations were announced at the guild’s Fall Forum in Cleveland.
What the rating means
REDI Sites scores a property on how much of the groundwork is already done. The guild weighs utilities at 30%, ownership and zoning at 20%, environmental work at 20%, ease of development at 15% and logistics infrastructure at 15%, after an engineering review by Terracon. The levels run from Emerging to Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The guild says the program now has 106 sites, 68 of them designated.
“A Bronze designation tells a community what it takes to reach Silver, and Silver shows what separates a site from Gold,” said Didi Caldwell, who chairs the REDI Sites board. “The value is knowing where you stand and having a clear path forward on your readiness journey.”
The Minden site
BIZ Magazine reported that the Minden site is about 25 acres inside the city limits on Industrial Drive and is owned by Webster Land Corporation. It is about half a mile from I-20 and 31 miles from I-49, and it can be split into parcels of 5 to 20 acres. The City of Minden supplies electricity and water, Minden Public Works handles sewer, CenterPoint provides natural gas and AT&T provides telecommunications. The site is also in Louisiana’s certified sites program.
The Monroe site
The Pecanland Site in Monroe earned the higher Gold rating, one of 15 Gold sites in the round and one of 10 in Louisiana. Winnsboro Industrial Park in Franklin Parish was also rated Gold. The guild’s announcement does not give the Monroe site’s size or other details.
A rating does not mean a company is coming. It is a marketing tool that tells site consultants a property has fewer unknowns, which can shorten the time it takes to get a plant built.