SWLA business leaders meet to discuss economy, development, and opportunity

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) – The Southwest Louisiana Economic Development Alliance and Entergy met early this morning at the SEED Center to discuss the current and future state of the region’s economy.

For the most part, the region has rebounded greatly since 2020 with gaming revenues back up from the pandemic. The service, leisure, hospitality, and manufacturing industries are all recovering as well. The Lake Charles Metropolitan Statistical Area has also remained the second-highest median household income and the highest real GPA per capita in the state.

“We got hit really hard by COVID, gaming shut down, demand for our refined projects went down, and then we had Laura so we got hit double,” Dr. Dan Groft, an economics professor at McNeese State University, said.

The storms also brought in a population decline which has caused a shrunken labor force. Louisiana as a whole is one of the states that have not recovered from job loss due to the pandemic.

“Even Mississippi has recovered, so we can’t say thank God for Mississippi,” Groft said.

High interest rates have also made it difficult to sell houses in our region, but building permits are being sold.

“That’s good news for construction, that is good news for houses, things are going to be built,” Groft said.

For new construction, the Port of Cameron has eight new proposed LNG projects, with over 60 billion dollars of proposed investments that hope to get started once the LNG ban gets lifted. Southwest Louisiana makes up two-thirds of U.S. LNG exports.

Developments can also be found across the five parishes with new economic districts coming to Jeff Davis and Calcasieu parishes. Airport improvements are also being made to Beauregard Airport and Lake Charles Regional Airport, with the latter building a new air traffic control tower.

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