I really think five years from now people will be talking about Baton Rouge the way they talked about Austin (Texas) five years ago. |
If everything works out well, we'll pick some of the (cultural) elements from New Orleans, like the high-end restaurants. That will sort of add to the fabric and character here, without taking away anything from New Orleans. |
It doesn't take long to get in a big hole. You've got an entire market that's down, and it will probably be down for six months. |
New Orleans has 28 million square feet of office space and 8 million feet of warehouse/industrial space. Most of that is displaced for several months. Pretty much everything in the capital region is going to be scooped up in the next few days. |
Some of these are small companies that don't have disaster insurance or disaster recovery plans. |
The common need is cash. Cash meets payroll. Cash pays business loans. |
The most unfortunate thing is we do not have enough space to accommodate the companies that have been displaced. |
There's going to be a huge increase in the population of Baton Rouge. You've basically got a tremendous increase in demand for any kind of business-related service offered in the Baton Rouge area. |
There's so many businesses that are vulnerable right now. |
We've met our 10-year business-development plan in just a few weeks. It's an opportunity, but it's a difficult situation because it's within all our interests for New Orleans to get back on its feet. |