GEISMAR - Continuing the economic momentum of new plant announcements from Hyundai and CF Industries, several organizations, along with Ascension Parish, broke ground Thursday on another economic builder with the Magnolia Ridge Logistics Park.

"In logistics parks, you'll typically see facilities that are focused on distribution, light to medium industrial manufacturing. You'll see facilities focused on office warehouse," Ratcliff Development President Gregg Thompson said.

With Ratcliff Development and JRE Private Capital, two organizations behind the project, saying that Ascension Parish is perfectly situated between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, it opens up a plethora of business and economic opportunities.

"Anything that happens here is going to affect everyone from New Orleans to Lafayette," JRE Managing Partner Trey Williams said.

The site in Geismar will have 14 lots available for build-to-suit, sale, or lease. Ratcliff says this project was designed to meet the growing demand for high-performance distribution and logistics hubs across the Gulf.

"This area of Louisiana has a very high barrier to entry when it comes to flood plain management and wetland mitigation, and there are very few properties that you can acquire and put into commerce at a reasonable dollar value," Thompson said.

"We're going to have 15-20 acre lots here, and it's hard to find a 20-acre lot that's fully entitled and ready to build on," Williams added.

Ratcliff says they're going to be putting in the infrastructure, water, streets, and sewers so that they can develop and sell lots that are put into commerce or industry.

"While we're finishing the infrastructure, we'll start targeting our tenant profile. We use demographic analysis to do that, as well as local knowledge. What we'll create are the buildings we intend to develop. So what I envision are people in the construction industry, people that are in the industrial paint industry, people that are in the distribution industry, and people that are in the manufacturing industry," Thompson said.

One of the more unique aspects of this project is that it has 52 investors, with most of them being in the capital region.

"The excitement of Trey Williams and the way that he was able to describe the project and it fit into what I am doing at the state level, which is promoting Louisiana right now as competing with all of the neighboring states," State Representative Peter Egan (R-Covington) said.

The overall development on the horizontal component of this is about 25 million. That's even before they start building any buildings in the business park. Depending on what those buildings look like, Thompson said they could cost anywhere from three million to 40 million dollars.

"Right now, we're scheduled to finalize our construction in Q4 of this year. Possibly go into Q1 of next year, but going into 2026, we should be able to have lots to sell," Williams said.