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TANGIPAHOA PARISH: MOVE HERE
Hammond Square offers an upscale experience in national and local shopping and dining.
‘We move as a community’ TANGIPAHOA OFFERS A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY FOR BUSINESS
WHEN TANGIPAHOA PARISH President Robby Miller speaks to groups, he usually begins by reminding the audience that his parish is the best in the state. Economic development has been a main priority for Miller since he took office six years ago. The benefits of this prioritization are obvious when considering the record number of new business filings and the numerous expansions of existing businesses. An uptick in sales tax collections and the increase in local, national and internationally owned companies are another example of this success and growth. “I say it every time and it doesn’t matter who’s there, Tangipahoa is the best place in Louisiana to live, work and do business,” Miller says. “Every parish has challenges and room for improvement, but if we focus on what we can do better and work hard, everyone wins. We’ve got to also talk about all the positive things going on in our parish, and Southland Coatings there are many.” and Grid Structure Miller’s election campaign in 2016 promised to make Tangipahoa the best in the state, across the region and beyond. A local business owner and community activist for more than 30 years, Miller was voted into office after the previous parish president chose not to seek re-election. When he took office, Miller created and adopted the saying “Move Here” because it not only captured the parish’s desire to recruit families and businesses, but also the unique way that residents move to action when needed. This resonated with Miller even more after 1012industryreport.com
Tangipahoa Parish President Robby Miller and Tangipahoa Economic Development Executive Director Ginger Cangelosi
seeing parish residents spring into action following the 2016 floods and Hurricane Ida and during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We move as a community,” Miller says. “We move to make sure we take care of each other, to make sure we do things to keep moving forward, to keep us active and engaged with each other. The ‘Move Here’ motto didn’t just describe us inviting people to the parish—it describes who we are.”
FINDING A WAY TO ‘YES’ Ginger Cangelosi, Executive Director of Economic Development for Tangipahoa Parish, works under the leadership of Parish President Miller and operates under the directive to “help businesses find their way to a YES.” Cangelosi says when a company is ready to start a project, industry 10/12 INDUSTRY REPORT • FALL 2022
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TANGIPAHOA PARISH: MOVE HERE
North Oaks Health System is one of the community’s many health care options.
leaders don’t want to be slowed down by bureaucracy. “Speed to market is priority number one,” she says. “Once they decide to do something, they’re looking to start building, and they don’t want any surprises.” The physical geography of the parish makes it attractive to businesses in many sectors, but especially advance manufacturing and distribution. Tangipahoa, and particularly Hammond, is located at the crossroads of Interstate 12 and Interstate 55, and within an hour’s drive of New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The parish is home to the Hammond Northshore Regional Airport. Port Manchac in the southern part of the parish, and Canadian National Railroad running through the parish, play a role in moving goods throughout Louisiana and the region. Land is also readily available. At the northern end of the parish, there is still plenty of undeveloped land available for purchase at a relatively inexpensive price, sometimes as low as $5,000 to $7,000 an acre, according to Will Frederick, a realtor with Keller Williams Realty Services who also does land development. Closer to the interstates, Frederick says, the price of land is a bit higher, as low as $10,000 an acre. There are also some properties for sale with existing commercial buildings, and Frederick describes the commercial real estate market as robust. Local business owners and government officials agree that one of the drivers of Tangipahoa’s success in economic development is the parish
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Southland Coatings and Grid Structure President Joey Lombardo
government’s willingness to work with businesses who 51,086 are looking to expand or Tangipahoa’s total regional locate there. employment. Jobs grew by 2,177 Cangelosi views her role over the last five years and are as helping business and projected to grow by 4,489 over industry find their way the next five years. This change to a “Yes” from parish outpaced the national growth government. That doesn’t rate of 1.8% by 2.7%. mean that every project is good for Tangipahoa Parish. Cangelosi says she is still tasked with the responsibility for smart growth and development and to recruit and support businesses that will bring good paying jobs and positive benefits to the community. Cangelosi’s office has a strong working relationship with secondary education institutions, including Southeastern Louisiana University and
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NORTH OAKS HEALTH SYSTEM IMPROVING LIVES SINCE 1960 Since our beginning in 1960, North Oaks has kept pace with development along the I-12 corridor and I-55 to become one of Louisiana’s most progressive health systems based in Hammond. From the very beginning, investments in people, technology and community partnerships have played a key role in our ability to offer and build upon our broad array of health care services for individuals, growing families, business and industry. Throughout our Hospitals, Level II Trauma Center, Primary Stroke Center, Clinics, Urgent Cares, Outpatient Diagnostic Services and Occupational Medicine/ Industrial Rehabilitation Programs, our dedicated team’s commitment to creating a safer and healthier region to live, work and play is evident in the exceptional quality, safety and experience we deliver.
Visit www.northoaks.org to discover for yourself the many ways North Oaks Health System is improving lives every time and with every touch.
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TANGIPAHOA PARISH: MOVE HERE
Medline Director of Operations Nick Latino
Northshore Technical Community College, both in Hammond, to ensure there is a trained and ready workforce available for area businesses. The programs often support many different business sectors including healthcare and advanced manufacturing. Ben Dutruch, owner of Meliora Landscape Group and board president of the Tangipahoa Economic Development Foundation, went through a re-branding process with his company at the beginning of 2022. Meliora has transitioned from a seasonal workforce to keeping many of its workers employed year-round. It also purchased more land adjacent to its company headquarters in Ponchatoula. “It’s something we’ve always talked about. Are we in the right place, especially for our corporate headquarters?” Dutruch says. “What we have found is that Tangipahoa Parish has been the easiest parish to work with as far as parish government and processes like permitting and planning, especially with adding new facilities. They’re willing to go the extra mile to help you get exactly what you need.” While Tangipahoa’s progress can and should be measured on paper with numbers and facts, Miller says business leaders, and in particular, site selectors, gauge how they feel when they visit the parish. “I think we do a really good job of making them feel that they’re special to 137,949 us, that we’re going to do what we need Tangipahoa’s to do to get them where they need to population in 2021. be, and that we expect the same thing It has grown by back from them—that they need to be 7,190 over the past good corporate citizens,” Miller says. five years and is “Because they’re going to have people projected to grow here whose lives depend on these by 4,094 over the companies being successful and being next five years. engaged with the community.”
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Ben Dutruch, President of the Tangipahoa Parish Economic Development Foundation
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TANGIPAHOA PARISH: MOVE HERE
Primed for
THE BIG THREE
logistics
MEDICAL SUPPLY GIANT Medline chose Tangipahoa Parish as the location for its $45 million distribution center expansion project. Medline Director of Operations Nick Latino says the location is a win-win for the business, allowing it to keep its team members close to home (about 60 percent live in Hammond) and deliver the optimized services it guarantees its clients. The newly opened Top Growing 650,000-square-foot Industries facility serves a growing Listed by job growth number of hospitals and • Construction nursing homes across the state and southern • Advanced Manufacturing United States. • Health Care Tangipahoa Parish’s prime location at the crossroads of Interstates 12 and 55, and the existing railways, port and regional airport make it an ideal location for warehousing and distribution. “These businesses tend to gravitate to Tangipahoa Parish organically,” says Ginger Cangelosi, executive director of Tangipahoa Economic Development. “What is helpful also is that parish officials have a welcoming attitude that goes a long way toward removing the hurdles for businesses looking to locate or expand there.” “When you look at the parish on a map, we’re strategically located where we can be in downtown Baton Rouge or downtown New Orleans in less than an hour,” Cangelosi says, “but we also have managed to maintain that small town feel.” The parish’s municipalities—Amite, Hammond, Ponchatoula, Kentwood, Independence, the Village of Tangipahoa, Tickfaw and Roseland—developed along a railway that follows the entire length of the parish. They also run parallel to Interstate 55 and U.S. Highway 51, and that has been a huge asset when attracting logistics providers.
The top three distribution companies in Tangipahoa, according to Tangipahoa Economic Development. Rankings based on footprint.
1. Walmart Distribution Center 2. C&S Wholesale Grocers 3. Medline Industries
SITE SELECTION tedf.org
S&W Wholesale Foods President and Owner Paul Spalitta plans to expand in Tangipahoa Parish
Through the parish’s economic development website, site selectors and developers can find available properties and buildings for lease and for sale. Additionally, the site specifies those locations that are Louisiana Economic Development Certified Sites, meaning the sites have gone through a pre-qualification process that may include environmental and wetlands studies and other preliminary work to attain certification through LED.
The parish is home to three industrial parks in Ponchatoula, Independence and Hammond. One of the major players in the Ponchatoula Industrial Park, located on U.S. Hwy 51 South, is J&M Industries’ tarp manufacturing facility. Approximately 20 businesses are located at the Hammond Industrial Park, including well-known Sno Balls To Go, a manufacturer of the single-serve snoball cups found in the grocery store freezer section. Paul Spalitta, president and owner of S&W Wholesale Foods, says his company is currently looking to expand their operations with another facility. The wholesale foods distributor has customers across the Gulf Coast and plans to develop a new food product distribution center in Hammond. “We love the geographic location because of the north, south, east, west interstate intersection,” Spalitta says. “We do business all over Louisiana and Mississippi. This is just a great access point.” Spalitta also likes the “pro-business attitude” when working with the parish president and economic development officials who are always willing to help companies achieve their goals. “They have a can-do attitude of what can we do to help you,” he says.
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TANGIPAHOA PARISH: MOVE HERE
Why Tangipahoa is right for … ADVANCED MANUFACTURING The parish has had multiple economic development successes in the advanced manufacturing sector with companies that could operate anywhere in the country and have chosen to stay in Tangipahoa Parish. Smitty’s Supply Inc. in Roseland, one of the leading manufacturers of lubricants and related products in the world, has expanded several times, adding 70-80 full-time jobs in six years. Elmer’s Candy Corporation expanded its footprint in 2015, adding an additional 70,000 square feet to its already 330,000 square-foot facility. With its upgrades in technology and especially robotics, someone who opens a Gold Brick or Heavenly Hash Egg becomes the first human hand Elmer’s Candy to touch that candy. Intralox, a division of Laitram, entered into a PILOT program with the parish in 2017, agreeing to expand its current location. The company, which produces modular plastic conveyor belts used in food, industrial and e-commerce industries at its Hammond facility, now plans to double its footprint and add another 425 jobs.
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Southland Coating and Grid Structures operates an advanced manufacturing facility in Amite. At its fully automated facility, Southland Coatings/Grid Structures is able to take on large jobs while guaranteeing fast turnaround because of its immediate access to the interstates, rail and freight yards and the Mississippi River.
HEALTHCARE Residents of Tangipahoa Parish have access to a Level II Trauma Center in North Oaks Medical Center. Michele Sutton, president and CEO of North Oaks Health System, says the Joint Commission accredited North Oaks Health System includes the 330-bed full-service hospital, two diagnostic centers, a surgery center, a rehabilitation hospital, an outpatient rehabilitation center, a School of Radiologic Technology, a physician’s group and 40 physician clinics that are North Oaks owned and operated. Also in Tangipahoa Parish, additional healthcare facilities include Cypress Pointe Surgical Hospital in Hammond, Hood Memorial Hospital in Amite and Lallie Kemp-LSU Regional Medical Center in Independence.
Intralox
J&M Industries
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TANGIPAHOA PARISH: MOVE HERE
Ready and willing
TANGIPAHOA OFFERS A ROBUST WORKFORCE AND TRAINING SOLUTIONS. TANGIPAHOA PARISH RESIDENTS want jobs closer to home, and with thriving degree and certification programs offered through local higher education institutions, they have multiple pathways available to gain the skills needed for successful long-term careers. Tina Roper, director of Workforce Development for Tangipahoa Parish, describes the parish’s workforce as “ready and willing.” The parish currently averages 4.74 candidates per opening in the Hammond Metropolitan Area. Tangipahoa Parish partners with the Louisiana Workforce Commission through Geaux Jobs to provide free occupational skills training to jobseekers in a 10-parish area and assists employers with employee placement. Core training providers based in Tangipahoa Parish include Coastal Truck Driving, Compass Career College, Petra College, Ocean Pointe Dental, Northshore Technical Community College and Southeastern Louisiana University. Roper’s team has coordinated customized trainings at Northshore Technical Community College for one of the parish’s largest employers, North Oaks Health System, to prepare more than 20 medical assistants for employment at the hospital. “It’s a really great program because everybody has skin in the game,” Roper says. “If we had another large industry that said it had a labor shortage in a specific area, like welding or advanced manufacturing, we could sit down with Southeastern or Northshore and figure out how we could come together in partnership to get a skilled and trained workforce.”
Some 539 students graduated from Northshore Technical in May with twoyear associate degrees, and another 650 students received certifications in programs like welding, plumbing, electrical and other trades. Another 1,119 students graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University in May. Roper says about 30 to 40 percent of graduates were from Tangipahoa. The university’s Handshake program is a successful one that connects students with employers searching for parttime workers primarily in the retail, hotel and restaurant industry. In K-12 education, Hammond Magnet High School offers both magnet and Tangipahoa Parish Workforce international baccalaureate programs Development Director Tina Roper and draws students from Hammond and the surrounding area of Tangipahoa Parish. It also offers the ProStart Program, a national, industry and certification-based culinary arts and restaurant management program. Tangipahoa Parish Schools Superintendent Melissa Stilley serves on the Tangipahoa Economic Development Foundation which shows economic development and education are closely aligned with each other. Employers look to Tangipahoa to meet their workforce needs, Roper says, but employment opportunities are concentrated in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The parish’s efforts in economic development and job training programs are helping to bridge that gap. “People are ready to go into the jobs even if the jobs haven’t opened yet,” Roper says. “People in this area are ready to go to work, and they want to work here. They want to be around their children and just enjoy the atmosphere of the parish.”
Proud to join the Tangipahoa Parish community We’re excited to be a part of the South Louisiana community with the opening of our 650,000square-foot facility in Hammond. As the largest critical medical products distributor in the state, Medline helps healthcare facilities—across the continuum—deliver their best care. We plan to be an active community partner, helping to improve lives throughout Tangipahoa Parish and the entire Gulf Coast Region. Learn more at medline.com.
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TANGIPAHOA PARISH: MOVE HERE
d e ax l e r e f i L OWN FEEL ENJOY A SMALL-T F AMENITIES. WITH PLENTY O
LOCATED WITHIN AN hour’s drive of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Tangipahoa Parish has plenty of its own activities to offer residents, and still manages to maintain a small-town feel offering a less hectic pace. From sports, to revitalized downtowns, to unique festivals that celebrate the parish’s cultural influences and food, there are so many reasons to visit or call Tangipahoa Parish home. Housing is readily available in the parish, with the average price of a single-family home around $220,000, says Will Frederick, realtor with Keller Williams Realty Services. The parish also has a good bit of inventory in the opening price point range of under $200,000. “There’s opportunity in Tangipahoa Parish, and you can literally work 15 to 20 minutes down the road and have a great career and be able to enjoy your family time because you’re not having to drive 2.5 hours a day to and from work,” Tangipahoa Parish President Robby Miller says. “You get to be involved in your children’s schools and your church. You get to be involved in the various organizations around the community, and that creates the quality of life that we’re all looking for.” Downtown Hammond offers more than 45 restaurants and bars, and downtown Ponchatoula is popular with locals and visitors for its charm,
walkability, art galleries, unique boutiques and restaurants. As the parish seat, the restaurant scene in Amite bustles during the work week with Mike’s Catfish Inn, a staple for more than 35 years, and The Boston Restaurant, serving seafood, steak and sushi for the past 10 years. LaCaretta Mexican Restaurant has one of their three restaurants in Amite as well. The Cafe in Kentwood is another great choice on the northern end of the parish. On the south end, Middendorf’s is a regional favorite, with people planning their trips to New Orleans around stopping at there for lunch to enjoy its thin-cut fried catfish. Hammond Square is one of the largest open-air shopping centers in the state, at 902,000-squarefeet and offering more than 40 national and local retailers, shops and restaurants. Stirling Properties redeveloped and expanded Hammond Square and currently manages and leases the center. Restaurants like Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux, Chipotle, Five Guys and others have opened locations at Hammond Square more recently. For national shopping brands, Hammond Square is home to Target, Academy, HomeGoods, Dillards, Old Navy and many other familiar names. “Our tourism industry plays a significant part in the overall economic development of our parish,” said Carla Tate, Executive Director of the Tangipahoa Parish Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We work very closely with parish government in promoting and supporting events for families to visit in Tangipahoa Parish.” Sports continues to play a large role in Tan-
gipahoa Parish’s tourism industry. Southland Conference athletic events hosted by Southeastern Louisiana University attract spectators from around the country, while having the university in the parish enables it to host larger high school sports events. Venues like Chappapeela Sports Park, Hamond America Park, and the Ponchatoula, Independence, Kentwood and Amite Sports Parks bring people to the area for baseball, softball, soccer, lacrosse, and flag football, as well as unique sporting events. Family-friendly attractions include Global Wildlife Center in Folsom, home to more than 3,500 free-roaming exotic, and endangered animals from all over the world, and Covey -Rise Lodge in Husser, with sport shooting facilities, guided hunting excursions, deluxe cabin rentals, onsite chef inspired dining and an incredible event space. The parish has a thriving festival life, with the Strawberry Festival in Ponchatoula drawing the largest crowds. It is the largest free festival in the state, second only to Mardi Gras. The Tangipahoa Parish Fair is the oldest fair in the state, and the Louisiana Renaissance Festival in Hammond is one of the most unique festivals, with authentic professional performers and more than 50 shows, transporting guests back to the 14th Century. The Independence Sicilian Heritage Festival and the Amite Oyster Festival kick off March and the Italian Festival in Tickfaw is a full weekend of celebrating Italian food, culture and music. 1012industryreport.com