I am . . . a Developer/Investor

the Shreveport skyline at night, Shreveport, LA

"Access to talented and creative people is to modern business what access to coal and iron ore was to steelmaking."
Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class

The state of Louisiana offers unprecedented investment opportunities for developers and investors of real estate and related projects. The Broadway South initiative offers them a unique vehicle through which they can be applied. These come in the form of federal and state tax incentives that, once combined in varying formats, offer investors unprecedented advantages.

For example in Orleans Parish, the GO Zone incentives.consist of federally sponsored benefits currently available through 2010. They include:

  - 26% federal investment tax credit on improvements to historically significant properties
  - 50% first year accelerated bonus depreciation of assets
  - Seven Billion ($7B) in Tax Exempt GO ZONE BONDS
  - New Market Tax Credits that can provide 20% on first year projects

** NOTE: Because Go Zone incentives are set to expire by December 31, 2010, investors should respond rapidly.

The Broadway South initiative and, in particular, its proposed 25% “infrastructure tax credit” will benefit the many historically significant theaters across the State of Louisiana and their communities. (For more information on these theaters, visit http://www.lhat.org/theatre_inventory/index.asp)

For example, the funds raised by these incentives will underwrite the reconstruction necessary to rebuild those parts of the city of New Orleans where storm-damaged venues already exist, as well as to develop other desired locations as new “art centers”— new rehearsal spaces, production offices, venues for comedy and jazz, artists living quarters, new hotels and restaurants, and retail outlets. The impact this will have on the entire state stems from the historical fact that up to 39% of all collected state tax revenue emanates from the city of New Orleans.

"Finally, to make the productions financially successful, the tourist market will have to be expanded. Local residents are not able to fill the seats for these productions. New York residents are not the major supporters of the theater in New York—it is tourists that make the Broadway plays a financial success. The same will be true in New Orleans. The New Orleans Metropolitan Area is the example in this analysis since this is the first reference point in terms of making this industry vibrant in Louisiana."
Economic Impact of State Tax Credits for Infrastructure and Production Expenditures for State-Certified Musical and/or Theatrical Productions
Dr. James A. Richardson, Alumni Professor of Economics, Louisiana State University

Related Information

GO ZONE Tax Incentives
http://www.gozoneguide.com/?gclid=CNv2qoParosCFQWMgAodhCiJMg

List of Historically Significant Theaters in LA
http://www.lhat.org/theatre_inventory/index.asp

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
http://www.amazon.com/Tipping-Point-Little-Things-Difference/dp/0316346624