IBM Technology Center In Baton Rouge Named One Of Top North American Deals Of 2013

BATON ROUGE, La. — Today, Site Selection magazine named IBM’s new technology center in Baton Rouge as one of its Top North American Deals of 2013. In addition, Site Selection ranked the Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, La., and New Orleans regional economic development groups among the top 11 in the U.S., and the magazine named LED one of the top five best performing state economic development agencies in the U.S.

Site Selection awarded 10 projects with placement in the Top North American Deals of 2013, including IBM’s technology center in Baton Rouge. In a March 2013 announcement, IBM selected Louisiana’s Capital region for an 800-job technology center in downtown Baton Rouge to provide software development and software maintenance services to clients in the U.S. IBM’s technology center, which is currently under construction, is the result of an innovative, public-private partnership that includes expanded higher-education programs related to computer science as well as a major new riverfront development that will accelerate the revitalization of downtown Baton Rouge.

Louisiana previously earned placement in the Top North American Deals list from Site Selection in 2008 (Shaw Group), 2009 (honorable mention for SNF Holding), 2010 (Nucor Corp.), 2011 (Sasol Ltd.) and 2012 (Benteler Steel/Tube). In addition to the IBM project, Louisiana gained 2013 recognition for its overall economic development efforts with the state’s fifth consecutive selection in the annual Top 10 Competitive States ranking; specifically, Site Selection ranked LED the fourth best performing state economic development agency in the U.S.

Gov. Bobby Jindal said, “Since we took office in 2008, our top priority for Louisiana has been retaining and attracting great jobs for our people so that our children will no longer need to leave Louisiana to pursue a rewarding career. Over the last several years, Louisiana’s economy has outperformed the South and the U.S. We continue to work aggressively to keep our state’s economy headed in the right direction, and this latest recognition from Site Selection validates our efforts. Louisiana ranks among the very best places for businesses to invest and create jobs, and we will not rest until our state is the best place to raise a family and create good paying jobs.”

In the Site Selection rankings, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber; the Southwest Louisiana Economic Development Alliance, based in Lake Charles; and Great New Orleans, Inc. won recognition in the publication’s Best To Invest-Top U.S. Groups list that recognizes the highest-performing regional economic development groups in the nation.

Regional/local economic development agencies were chiefly ranked on four criteria: new jobs, new jobs per capita, new capital investment and new capital investment per capita. Then, the groups were scrutinized for more subjective attributes – among them innovation, leadership and customer service.

Collaboration between LED and the regional economic groups has yielded unprecedented business development success in recent years. Since January 2008, Gov. Jindal and LED have secured economic development projects that are resulting in more than 83,000 new direct and indirect jobs in the state and more than $54 billion in new capital investment in Louisiana, along with hundreds of millions of dollars in new sales for Louisiana’s small businesses.

Since 2008, Louisiana has improved significantly in every major national ranking of business climate, business investment, economic development or economic performance. In the last year alone, Louisiana has secured a variety of significant improvements in national rankings, for example:

• Site Selection ranked Louisiana No. 6 among the 2013 Top U.S. Business Climates.
• Area Development ranked Louisiana No. 6 among the Top States for Doing Business in 2013.
• Business Facilities ranked Louisiana No. 4 for Best Business Climate in the magazine’s 2013 State Rankings Report.
• Business Facilities also has ranked LED FastStart^® as the nation’s No. 1 state workforce training agency for the fourth consecutive year.

About Site Selection
Site Selection magazine, published by Conway Data Inc., delivers expansion-planning information to 44,000 executives of fast-growing firms. Read more about Site Selection’s latest rankings at www.siteselection.com.