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Brownfields Success Stories
Shreveport's Revolving Loan Fund:
Building for the Future
The City of Shreveport, Louisiana's urban area suffered greatly from the collapse of the oil industry in the 1980s, which resulted in the loss of 10,000 jobs and hundreds of acres of abandoned industrial properties. Although the city has started to see growth after the "oil bust" of the 1980s, most of the recent development has occurred in the outlying agricultural lands and has neglected the inner city. A $400,000 BCRLF loan from EPA is expected to leverage more than $100 million in public and private sector funding, for cleanup and redevelopment of a 20-acre brownfield-the site of a former power company-into a new convention center. This total includes $85 million in bond funds, $25 million in private development funds, $6 million in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-Brownfields Economic Development Initiative (BEDI) funds ($1 million BEDI grant plus $5 million through Section 108), and $6.5 million from the Red River Waterway Commission. The convention center and associated development projects will create an estimated 1,100 jobs, while thousands of additional jobs will result from other redevelopment projects in the surrounding area. Keith Hightower, mayor of Shreveport, said of the redevelopment project, "The Convention Center is definitely a tool of economic development. Jobs will be created in the construction and the running of it, and offshoot positions will be developed in the local restaurant/hotel and entertainment industries." For more information on the Shreveport BCRLF Pilot, contact Arlena Acree in the Department of Economic Development: (318) 673-7515.