Louisiana Feasibility Studies

In Calcasieu Parish, Woodside took a final investment decision of $17.5 billion on Louisiana LNG Phase 1 on April 29, 2025, for planned capacity of 16.5 Mtpa and a first LNG target of 2029 ¹⁵. Groundbreaking followed in September 2025, with Bechtel as contractor ⁵⁷.

KNOE's report of the Vintage 2025 estimates puts the Lake Charles metro at 244,655 residents against an April 2020 count of 254,652, and a gain of 1,328 in the latest year ¹⁸. The metro had 106,500 nonfarm jobs in August 2026, up 1.14% ⁶⁷.

Visit Lake Charles announced a lakefront Hilton Garden Inn beside the Lake Charles Event Center in December 2024; no opening date was found ⁸⁸.

Hotel building is under way: a Holiday Inn Express and a Home2 Suites in Monroe and a Residence Inn in West Monroe were under construction in April 2026, with more planned ⁹³. In Delhi, USDA Rural Development marked the groundbreaking of a new hospital with a $79.1 million investment in September 2026, though the program and fiscal year were not confirmed ⁹⁴.

KNOE's report of the Vintage 2025 estimates puts the Monroe metro at 222,390 residents, a stated change of minus 4,757 since 2020 ¹⁸. The metro counted 92,600 nonfarm jobs in August 2026, up 0.65% ⁶⁷. Lumen, based in Monroe, was reported in 2025 to be reducing its Louisiana staff and footprint ⁹².

Meta's Richland Parish campus was announced in December 2024 and then expected to be operational by 2030 ⁹¹, and was expanded in July 2026 ¹⁷. In April 2026 the Public Service Commission voted to fast-track Entergy's proposal for new gas plants across Richland and Pointe Coupee parishes to serve it ⁶⁰, and in June the Governor's executive order set expectations for large-load investments of this kind ⁶³. KNOE's July 2026 report gives Richland Parish 19,500 residents by the 2025 Census estimate and records road and traffic concerns around the expansion, with no counts published ¹⁷.

CoStar recorded New Orleans hotel occupancy of 53.9% in July 2025, the lowest of the Top 25 markets ⁶⁹. During the 2025 Super Bowl week the market reached 92.9% weekend occupancy at an average rate of $486 ⁷⁰. February 2026 showed an average rate of $204.95, 33.7% below February 2025, the Super Bowl month, with RevPAR of $136.00 ⁷¹; August 2026 brought 43.3% occupancy and RevPAR of $51.63 ⁷².

KNOE, reporting the Census Vintage 2025 estimates, put the New Orleans metro at 970,849 residents in July 2025 against an April 2020 count of 1,007,275 ¹⁸. The Data Center reports a net loss of 36,426 since 2020 on the same 2025 total ⁶⁵. The Data Center also counts 21,228 Hispanic residents added since 2020 ⁶⁵. The city itself, which is Orleans Parish, held 362,154 people in July 2025 against an estimates base of 384,129 ⁶⁶. The metro carried 470,300 nonfarm jobs in August 2026 ⁶⁷. The latest employer list found dates from 2012, with Ochsner at 9,107 employees and St. Tammany schools at 7,651 ⁶⁸.

The city stopped accepting new commercial short-term rental applications in June 2023 ¹⁹, removed every exception to its one-per-square density rule in March 2025 ⁵⁶, and required platforms to verify permits from August 2025 ⁵⁸. With the prior moratorium due to expire in November 2025 ⁷³, the Council adopted a Transient Lodging Interim Zoning District on May 7, 2026, making new hotels, hostels, commercial rentals, timeshares and bed and breakfasts conditional uses ²⁰. The Fifth Circuit struck the business-entity ban in October 2025 ²¹ and upheld the non-commercial ordinance in August 2026 ²². Act 387 of 2025 also amended the state's New Orleans rental provisions ⁷⁴. Room charges carry state and city sales tax plus several occupancy levies ⁵⁸; the combined rate was not found.

Barksdale Air Force Base's economic impact statement, as BIZ Magazine reported it, put the base's total impact at $1.3997 billion in FY2025, up from about $1.11 billion a year earlier, with expenditures of $573.4 million ⁸⁴. The metro itself is smaller than in 2020: KNOE's report of the Vintage 2025 estimates puts it at 383,474 residents against an April 2020 count of 393,406 ¹⁸, and it counted 171,200 nonfarm jobs in August 2026 ⁶⁷.

Capital is going into roads and city systems. Bossier City's five-year capital plan for 2026 to 2030 totals more than $188 million ⁸⁵. The Benton Road and I-220 interchange and the Barksdale Boulevard widening are funded through state capital outlay ⁸⁶, and a U.S. 71 project was set to start the week of September 28, 2026 for completion in early 2027 ⁶⁴.

Shreveport publishes its own fee for a Class B off-premises liquor license ⁸⁷. For hotels, STR's weekly report for September 14 to 20, 2025 placed the Louisiana North market, which takes in Shreveport and Bossier City along with Alexandria, highest outside the Top 25 on RevPAR gain ⁹⁶, a one-week signal shared with another market.

• January 2025: the Louisiana Citizens board voted to end its assessment early; it ended in April 2025 ¹².
• March 2025: LDH amended the administrative code chapter that governs its need review ⁴⁰, and New Orleans eliminated every exception to its one-per-square short-term rental rule ⁵⁶.
• April 22, 2025: the State Bond Commission gave final approval to the Ochsner conduit bonds ³⁷.
• June 12, 2025: HB 469, the short-term rental authority bill, died ⁴⁶.
• August 2025: New Orleans began requiring platforms to verify a permit before booking ⁵⁸.
• October 7, 2025: the Fifth Circuit struck New Orleans' ban on business-entity permit holders and its one-unit-per-listing rule ²¹.
• October 21, 2025: SBA published its estimate of Louisiana lending blocked by the federal shutdown ³¹.
• January 24 and February 18, 2026: EM-3638 and DR-4900 were declared for the winter storm ³⁴.
• February 2026: the England Authority created an overlay district in Rapides Parish ⁵⁹.
• March 26, 2026: KNOE reported the Vintage 2025 estimates for the eight metros ¹⁸.
• April 9, 2026: the House Labor Committee rejected HB 353, a minimum wage bill for $12 rising to $15, by 7 votes to 5 ⁴⁸.
• April 15, 2026: the Public Service Commission voted to fast-track Entergy's gas plant proposal for Richland and Pointe Coupee parishes ⁶⁰.
• May 2026: on May 7 New Orleans adopted its Transient Lodging Interim Zoning District ²⁰; on May 26 Applied Digital announced Delta Forge 1 in Rapides Parish ⁶².
• June 2026: the Governor's executive order created the Ratepayer and Community Protection Initiative for large-load investments ⁶³; DR-4927 was declared on June 30 ⁵.
• July 2026: Meta announced an expansion of its Richland Parish campus ¹⁷.
• August 2026: DEQ revised its tank fund guidance on August 6 ⁴⁴, and the Fifth Circuit upheld the New Orleans non-commercial rental ordinance ²².
• September 2026: Hyundai Steel broke ground ¹⁶, a private carrier was approved to take Citizens commercial policies ¹³, and construction on a U.S. 71 project in the Shreveport area was scheduled to begin ⁶⁴.

In April 2026 a Holiday Inn Express and a Home2 Suites in Monroe and a Residence Inn in West Monroe were under construction ⁹³. They join a state hotel and motel trade, casino hotels excluded, of 887 establishments with 19,622 employees in County Business Patterns for 2023 ⁵⁵.

Louisiana's owned homes carry a median value of $216,500 in the five-year American Community Survey for 2020 to 2024; 588,653 units are rented, at a median gross rent of $1,064 where rent is paid in cash ²⁸.

SBA's Louisiana District Office in New Orleans serves the entire state ²⁹, and the agency's FOIA files hold 3,647 Louisiana 7(a) approvals for fiscal years 2016 to 2025, net of cancellations ³⁰. SBA may require a feasibility study under 13 CFR 120.160(b): SBA may require professional appraisals, a survey, or a feasibility study ⁸. SBA's program tests come from SOP 50 10 8.1 with Technical Policy Updates ⁹, and our SBA 7(a) and 504 practice page sets them out.

Louisiana's gate for care uses is Facility Need Review, not a certificate of need ¹⁰. Every provider type in the table passes it before first licensure, among them adult residential care, the license behind assisted living, and psychosocial rehabilitation, a behavioral health service ¹⁰. The state's residents aged 65 and over numbered 772,404 in the five-year American Community Survey for 2020 to 2024 ²⁸. For nursing facilities, R.S. 40:2116.1 adds a moratorium, with exceptions for a replacement that adds no beds and for nursing beds converted to adult residential care ¹¹. The review rule refers to adult residential care level 4 ⁴⁰; definitions of the levels and bed thresholds were not found.

Louisiana has no statute that enables or preempts local short-term rental rules: HB 469, which would have written local authority into statute, died on June 12, 2025 ⁴⁶, and SB 225, creating a private right of action against unpermitted rentals, reached the reengrossed stage, and its final status was not found ⁴⁷. Act 387 of 2025 amended the state's New Orleans rental provisions ⁷⁴, and the city writes its own rules. Louisiana's minimum wage in 2026 follows the federal rate of $7.25 an hour, parishes and cities are barred from setting their own under R.S. 23:642, and HB 353, which would have set $12 rising to $15, was rejected 7 to 5 by the House Labor Committee on April 9, 2026; it is not law ⁴⁸.

A gas station or travel center sits under DEQ's Motor Fuels Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund, set up by Act 767 of 1988, and under R.S. 30:2195.4 its cleanup costs must be approved in advance to be reimbursed ⁴³. The Legislative Auditor audits the fund's dedicated account and its transfers for FY2024 ⁴⁵. DEQ's separate upgrade grant takes up to 20 owners a year ⁴⁹.

Child care centers are licensed under BESE Bulletin 137 as Type I, II or III, and a Type III center also needs academic approval under Bulletin 140 ⁴¹. The bulletin sets staff-to-child ratios by age band and requires at least two staff whenever more than four children are present ⁴¹.

The January 2026 winter storm produced two federal declarations. The emergency declaration EM-3638 came on January 24 for an incident period of January 23 to 27, and FEMA had obligated $3,787,500 of Public Assistance under it by May ³. The major disaster declaration DR-4900 followed on February 18, with $151,178.60 of Public Assistance obligated and designations including Ouachita, Morehouse, Richland and De Soto parishes; the SBA economic injury loan deadline under it runs to December 4, 2026 ⁴.

Tropical Storm Arthur brought DR-4927, declared on June 30, 2026 ⁵. The incident period is recorded two ways: June 17 to 24 on the disaster page ⁵, June 17 to 18 on FEMA's Louisiana page ⁵³ and in SBA's amendment ⁵².

Wind is not the only damage driver. Insurify, citing NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information, reports that severe thunderstorms rather than hurricanes caused the most property damage in Louisiana over 2025 to 2026 ⁵⁴, and neither of 2026's major disasters was a hurricane: DR-4900 followed a winter storm and DR-4927 a tropical storm ⁴⁵.