The Business Report
The Baton Rouge Area Chamber says it closed on 12 economic development projects last year that resulted in 683 jobs, $29.7 million in annual payroll and $593 million in capital investment for the nine-parish Capital Region.
This year, BRAC hopes to land even more economic development deals by focusing on four priorities, as laid out by CEO Adam Knapp in a presentation to the Baton Rouge Press Club today.
The priorities, as identified in BRAC’s 2018 strategic plan, are: Securing transportation project funding sources, increasing business development project leads in target growth sectors, making measurable and visible progress of “quality of place” initiatives, and partnering with parishes and local organizations to ensure competitive, transparent local incentives that provide return on investment.
This year’s strategic plan is a part of BRAC’s latest five-year strategic plan, which is called “Think Bigger” and was launched in January of 2016. Also in 2017, BRAC says it increased its project pipeline through business recruitment and marketing to site consultants, which led to more than 6,000 new prospective jobs and over $98 million in payroll.