The Strength of the Gulf South
I wanted to share a PowerPoint I recently presented at a meeting highlighting the strength of the Gulf South. In recent years, the Gulf South has been gaining the Nation’s attention and rising to the top of many National Rankings. Activity in the Gulf South is driven by achievements in a variety of areas, must notably Energy/Oil & Gas Production, Chemical Processing, Aerospace, IT & Digital Media, the New Orleans BioDistrict and Coastal Restoration.
When you look at the entire picture of what is happening down here – from the LNG facilities in Lake Charles, Airbus in Mobile, the IBM announcement in Baton Rouge, the medical corridor in New Orleans, and the activity in the IT sector and coastal restoration – it is an amazing picture. Truly. Nowhere else in the country is this level of activity occurring.
Click the image below to view the presentation.
Collection Drive for The Covington Food Bank a Success!
Stirling Properties just completed a 2-week collection drive for The Covington Food Bank, whose supplies have been considerably depleted over the course of the summer. Since the food bank is in desperate need of food and personal hygiene products, the Stirling Stewardship Committee organized the drive to give employees and agents at Stirling’s Corporate Headquarters in Covington the opportunity to donate toward this worthy cause. Thanks to the generosity of everyone who donated items, the Covington Food Bank now has over 700 more items to help those in need. When the items were dropped off, they totaled 704 pounds (yes, pounds)!
A special thank you to Tracy Gandy for her efforts in organizing the drive, and to Dawn Plaisance, Monica Milazzo, Jessica Zeringue and Mark Dugan who donated the most items!
Pictured: (Top Row, L-R) Monica Milazzo, Dawn Plaisance, (Bottom Row, L-R) Jessica Zeringue, Tracy Gandy
About the Covington Food Bank: The Covington Food Bank is truly a community food bank. Supported by the generosity of the residents and businesses of the Northshore, the food bank serves the needs of the most vulnerable in our community by providing food, clothing, emergency assistance and dental care. The Covington Food Bank serves residents of St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington Parishes. Click here to find out how you can get involved!
Alabama Center for Real Estate’s Executive Exchange
With my recent relocation to the Mobile market as Vice President and Regional Manager of Alabama and Florida with Stirling Properties, I was invited to join the Leadership Council for the Alabama Center for Real Estate (ACRE) as well as become a lunch sponsor at the ACRE Executive Exchange Forum in Montgomery – all in one week! I used this very timely opportunity to introduce myself and Stirling Properties to the leaders of the Alabama real estate community.
Included in the forum lineup was the keynote speech from Dr. David Bronner, CEO of the Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA), whom I found to be very relevant and instrumental in the recent success the state has had in recruiting new industry. Of the many great points made by Dr. Bronner, I was surprised to hear that RSA owns multiple television and radio stations around the country along with the largest billboard company in the U.S. and they use this media as a negotiating tool to help lure new businesses as well as promote their Alabama investments, that include the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail and multiple high-end hotel and office properties located throughout the state. Another point Dr. Bronner made was “when it comes to real estate investment, it’s better to put your money into places you’re familiar with” which is why I and the owners of Stirling Properties made the decision to open an office in this market versus trying to run it from our corporate headquarters in Louisiana.
Stirling Properties was thrilled to be a sponsor of the Executive Exchange and I enjoyed meeting those leaders from around the state of Alabama that are making a difference. Stay tuned as we will be announcing the opening of our office very soon!
President’s Message: It’s a New Day in New Orleans!
Last week, we celebrated the Grand Opening of Mid-City Market in New Orleans. This Winn-Dixie anchored, urban shopping center is a milestone for Stirling Properties, as it’s our largest ground-up shopping center development in the City of New Orleans in our company’s 37 year history! It also represents one of the most significant retail developments in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina, taking once blighted and vacant properties and returning them to commerce. This project creates over 500 new jobs and generates projected annual retail sales of over $61 Million.
Mid-City Market is the culmination of over 4 years of work and it was a challenge to put (and keep) all the pieces together. Few companies could take on a project of this complexity and succeed, but Stirling Properties was up for this challenge.
I want to commend our incredible team who worked on this project for a job well done! There were many points in time where it looked like the deal was dead, but our Stirling team worked diligently to complete it. It was through their hard work and perseverance that this inner-city project materialized.
I also want to commend Mayor Mitch Landrieu for his vision and leadership and Councilwoman Susan Guidry for her incredible support and drive to help make this a reality for Mid-City.
The Mid-City Market project is a result of over $40 Million in private investment and demonstrates our strong belief in the City of New Orleans and the civic and business leadership which has created an environment where businesses are confident to invest. A plethora of national and regional rankings paint a truly remarkable picture of New Orleans as THE city on the move, which is in stark contrast to previous decades.
This project, combined with our other projects completed to date, brings Stirling’s investments to over $120 Million in the City of New Orleans in just the last 3 years. All of us at Stirling Properties are confident in the direction of New Orleans, and Mid-City Market shows our continued commitment to the market. This project was the first for us in many ways and certainly will not be the last.
Louisiana Rising in the National Rankings
As the International Council of Shopping Center’s (ICSC’s) State Director for Louisiana, I recently contributed an article for the July 2013 edition of our Quarterly Membership Newsletter that I’d like to share:
As the returning ICSC State Director, I am extremely excited about the progress that we are making in the State of Louisiana on a number of fronts. Most importantly for our retail industry the economic and business growth trends continue to show a phenomenal trend for the region. Over the last 5 years, Louisiana has risen significantly across numerous national rankings – and the accolades keep coming! It’s hard to keep up with all the good news, which is a great problem to have. Highlighted below for quick reference are some of the rankings earned by the State of Louisiana over just the last quarter – very impressive for a state that was traditionally on the bottom of every list.
Louisiana Rankings – 2nd Quarter 2013:
- Top 10 Most Entrepreneurial States
CNN Money, June 2013
- #1 State with the Most Engaged Employees (most involved & enthusiastic)
Gallup, June 2013
- 2nd in the U.S. for construction job growth from May 2012 to May 2013
Associated General Contractors of America, June 2013
- 11th among “Best/Worst States for Business” based on CEO survey (most improved in the U.S. over the past 4 years, up 33 spots since 2009)
Chief Executives, May 2013
- Top 5 State in the U.S. for worldwide exporting in 1st Quarter 2013
World Trade Center of New Orleans, May 2013
- #2 Best States for Retirement
Bankrate.com, May 2013
- #7 among “Top Ten Competitive States of 2012”
Site Selection, May 2013
- 2nd Least Stressed State in 2012
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, April 2013
- 1 of 6 states experiencing the largest increases in entrepreneurial activity rates over the past decade; 9th for 2010 to 2012 Entrepreneurial Activity with a rate of 400 per 100,000 residents (U.S. 300 per 100,000)
Kauffman Index, April 2013
- 2nd fastest revenue growth (up 170%) and 4th fastest growth in number (up 84%) of women-owned firms from 1997 to 2013
The State of Women-Owned Businesses, March 2013
- 12th in the U.S. for per-capita economic development project wins
Site Selection’s 2012 Governor’s Cup, March 2013
- Record-breaking $63.2 billion in merchandise exports in 2012, growing 15% over 2011
International Trade Administration, March 2013
- 3rd Best State for Banking
MoneyRates.com, March 2013
Louisiana’s cities and metro areas are also commanding positive national attention. Summarized below are some of the rankings earned over just the last quarter in these areas.
Notable Metro/City Rankings – 2nd Quarter 2013:
- Lafayette #1 overall among 100 Leading Locations in the U.S. for economic & job growth; #1 for Economic Strength, Year-Over-Year Growth & “Recession-Busting” factors among Top 25 Mid-Size Cities
Area Development’s Leading Locations for 2013, Summer 2013
- New Orleans and Shreveport among Top 20 Fastest Growing Cities in U.S.
NerdWallet.com, June 2013
- New Orleans is America’s Fastest Growing City
Forbes, June 2013
- New Orleans #3 among “Big Cities Winning the Battle for Information Jobs”
Forbes, May 2013
- Benteler Steel/Tube in Shreveport among “Top North American Deals of 2012” – 2nd largest investment in the U.S. during 2012
Site Selection, May 2013
- New Orleans #2 “Boomtown” in America, based on population and GDP growth
Bloomberg, April 2013
- Baton Rouge and Alexandria among “25 Best Places to Retire” out of 400 total U.S. cities
Forbes, March 2013
- New Orleans & Baton Rouge among Top 30 Best Cities for Young Entrepreneurs 2013
Under30CEO, March 2013
Louisiana has fared relatively well during the Great Recession and the national rankings show it. National and trade publications are taking notice and businesses are too. Louisiana is well positioned for a great future.
Stirling Communities Update: Tiger Manor Improvements Completed!
Since our last Stirling Communities update, Tiger Manor has come a long way and the renovations are 100% complete! The $1.4 Million in renovations were completed a couple months ago and included these major renovations:
- Complete exterior repaint of all buildings
- New primary entrance road off E. State Street
- Card Access Security Gate Systems
- New management office
- Pool Renovations
- Landscaping and Irrigation
- Parking Lot Repairs
Tiger Manor is currently experiencing a strong summer lease-up season with 5% rental increases on average on the new leases being signed.
