"Louisiana cargo airport plan gets a lift"

Thursday, August 19, 2004

Cargo airport plan gets a lift
Canadian developer to 'step forward' today
By Robert Travis Scott
The New Orleans (LA) Times-Picayune


BATON ROUGE -- The Louisiana Airport Authority plans to announce today a
significant step forward in its 12-year effort to develop an immense cargo
airport and transportation hub in the Iberville area. 

Authority Chairman Glen Smith said the Canadian Commercial Corp., a business
promotion arm of the Canadian government, has assembled a team of Canadian
and U.S. companies that are prepared to move forward on the
multibillion-dollar project. 

Representatives from the Canadian team will sign a "memorandum of
understanding" with the Louisiana Airport Authority today at the authority's
office in LaPlace. 

The Canadian team then will study the project and refine the master plan
created in recent years by the authority, Smith said. The Canadian
Commercial Corp. would guarantee the investment, Smith said. 

The project, called the Louisiana Transportation Center, would be on 25,000
acres of what is now mostly sugar cane fields in the bend of the Mississippi
River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. It would serve as a
transportation hub; it would include an airport, a port and some rail lines.
Manufacturers could locate there. 

Airport officials in Baton Rouge and New Orleans have opposed the plan. 

The project has long been on the drawing board but no investor has stepped
forward to make it real. 

"As of tomorrow morning the developer of this project will step forward,"
Smith said Wednesday. 

The first phase of the project is expected to cost $417 million. The state
would be expected to buy the land for an estimated $88 million. Those
numbers could change after further study, Smith said. 

A spokesman for Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the governor was impressed with
the caliber of leadership representing the Canadian government and private
sector, as well as their experience in international cargo airport
development and management.


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