The EDD has been in the works for roughly a year and a half, and council chairman Chris Smith believes that finally, all the boxes have been checked, including the most important of looping in all the businesses in the proposed district.
“I do think that we have met with every business owner in the district, we have held multiple town hall meetings with all the businesses in the district, we have tried to address every concern that everyone had while also making sure we kept the integrity of the program, so it could do what it's intended to do,” he told The Shreveport Bossier City Advocate.
Smith said the nonprofit economic development district will be called ‘The Row,’ both for its adjacency to the Red River and the row of businesses contained within.
It will run for one mile along the Red River, from Chasing Aces/Margaritaville to Live Casino and Hotel Louisiana. It will incorporate all four of Bossier City’s casinos, as well as the Louisiana Boardwalk and the East Bank District. Any business within The Row that collects sales tax will collect two percent additional, if the EDD is approved by the council.
Smith said city projections show the two percent could equal $1.5 to $1.8 million in year one.
He and District 1 Councilman Brian Hammons believe that The Row will be a game changer for both Bossier City and its entertainment district. Hammons’ only regret is that the city didn’t do it sooner.
“Ruston now has four EDD districts, and everybody in Ruston loves them. The first one they did, it was specific, they wanted to pay for their sports complex, $12 million. They paid for that in five years,” said Hammons.
“I just think back. My gosh, what could we have done with that whole area down there if we would have done this five years ago?”
Smith said the first thing people will see is an emphasis on safety and security with more officers and lighting, and additional transportation options, especially those that can easily get people from the Boardwalk — or casino parking garages — to other locations in The Row.
The timing on additional EDD funding for security is good, he believes, because a new entertainment district open container law means businesses can get permits to allow carryout alcoholic beverages.
Though security and transportation are high on the list to improve, that list is much longer, he said.
“It’s gonna be very broad, so it (EDD funds) can be used for a wide range of things,” said Smith. “It can be used for marketing, event programming, public spaces and amenities, safety, security, infrastructure, road, sidewalks. It will have the ability to be bondable if it (the EDD) wants to go after a big project. The district can do whatever it thinks it needs to do to be successful.”
“In order for anything to grow, it takes money, It takes tourism, and that's exactly what we're trying to do,” shared Hammons.
Decisions of the EDD will not be made in a vacuum, stresses Smith, and he is quick to note that the City Council will still oversee and affirm the spending. “So that's kind of the checks and balances to make sure that the district doesn't go out bonding or overspending, because at the end of the day, the elected officials have the fiduciary responsibility to manage the taxpayer money,” he said.
An additional guardrail, said Smith, is that the board can’t spend more than 30% on one particular item. He said that will help ensure “equitable spending.”
The EDD will be overseen and run by a board that Smith thinks could be seated in 30 to 60 days after the district is approved by the city council.
Until the initial board can be seated, The Row will be overseen by the board of the Greater Bossier Economic Development Foundation.
The Row’s board will eventually include appointees from the district’s businesses, the city and the GBEDF.
“You have to have experience in certain sectors to even be qualified to be on the board,” said Smith. “So 5 years’ experience in financial services, 5 years’ experience in hospitality, 5 years in commercial real estate, 5 years of economic development or be a qualified business owner of at least 5 years with at least 5 full-time employees. You have to check one of those boxes to even be eligible.”
Smith said no elected official or business that stands to financially benefit will be allowed to serve.
The first task of the board will be to create a set of operational and spending bylaws that will address details like how much the EDD board can spend without council approval and how to replace a board member.
Smith said after about two years of reinvestment into the entertainment district, he believes EDD collections will grow to $2 million annually. That, he said, could give the district bonding capacity of roughly $30 million for a capital project, if they decide to use it.
The ROW board could also provide an incentive to get a particular business to locate in the district, but that, said Smith, would require a unanimous vote of the EDD board and city consent.
“We would want to make sure that any businesses that we incentivize to come here are complementary to the district and not a replica of what we already have,” he said.
Smith said the money raised by the EDD won’t relieve the city of its obligation to infrastructure maintenance, but it does prevent other needs of the district from “competing with the needs of the entire city.”
“Every single casino is 100% behind this,” said Hammons. “They understand the big concept.”
“They're going to make their money, but they love the idea of having more stuff here for people to do, we want this to be a destination, like (Bossier City CAO) Shane Cheatham says, a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night destination. That is what we are pushing the goal towards.”
The new economic development district will be introduced at the Sept. 1 city council meeting but can’t be voted on until September 29.
“Do I think we're still going to have some people Tuesday that speak in disagreement with it?” asked Hammons. “Yes, but you know that's the privilege of living in America. You have your right to come and disagree, but in the end, I really think that we will prevail and we can move this on to the next phase.”