The Red River near Alexandria, home of the Central Louisiana Regional Port, one of two first-round FastSites port projects.

Key Points

  • LED's FastSites Round II offers $50 million for site and infrastructure work; applications are open Oct. 1 to Dec. 1, with reviews by the end of 2026 and awards in early 2027.

  • Awards range from $500,000 to $25 million, applicants must put up a match of 50% to 80% depending on project type, and construction must start within nine months.

  • First-round deals include nearly $2 million for a 10-acre heavy-load hardstand at the Central Louisiana Regional Port, due to be finished by Nov. 1, and $2.55 million to nearly double warehouse space at the Natchitoches Parish Port.

ALEXANDRIA — Louisiana parishes, ports and economic development groups have until Dec. 1 to apply for a share of $50 million in the second round of the state's FastSites program, which pays to get land ready for industry before a company picks a site. For local economic developers, the round is a chance to put roads, utilities and rail access in the ground now, so the next prospect finds a site with that work already done.

Louisiana Economic Development opened Round II on Oct. 1. Competitive projects must be ready to begin construction within nine months, bring matching funds and show a path to repaying the state, according to the agency's Sept. 16 announcement. The money comes from the Site Investment and Infrastructure Improvement Fund created by the Legislature in Act 365 of 2025. LED says lawmakers recently appropriated an additional $50 million, bringing the fund to $200 million.

"FastSites is changing how Louisiana prepares for economic development by investing before infrastructure becomes a barrier," said Ileana Ledet, LED's chief economic competitiveness officer. "The first round showed the demand from communities ready to move critical site and infrastructure projects forward, and Round II builds on that progress by helping more communities put the infrastructure in place to compete for future projects."

LED's program page sets a minimum award of $500,000 and a maximum of $25 million, with each deal written into a cooperative endeavor agreement. Applicants must identify a match of 50% to 80% of project costs depending on the type of project, in cash, in-kind contributions with a clear dollar value, or a mix. The money can go toward new access roads, drainage, clearing, filling wetlands, demolition, water, power, gas, sewer and broadband connections, rail spurs and crossings, and buying land or options on it. It cannot pay for consultants, lawyers, site marketing, movable equipment or routine maintenance such as mowing.

Economic development organizations, municipalities, nonprofits, redevelopment authorities and other public bodies can apply. Privately owned sites can qualify if the owner commits to marketing the land for economic development, though they need a higher match, and publicly owned land is more competitive.

FastSites money is meant to come back to the state. Every applicant must show a path to repayment, and LED describes the program as revolving, with the state getting its money back over time through structures such as a fee per square foot once a site is leased, a fixed charge per railcar on a new spur, or an annual fee per business that moves into an upgraded park, and with the repaid money funding the next round. Funding can come as a loan, a partnership in which both sides invest, or state ownership of key infrastructure.

The first round shows how that works in practice. In September LED said it had finalized more than $4.5 million for two port projects. At the Central Louisiana Regional Port in Alexandria, nearly $2 million is paying for a 10-acre heavy-load hardstand on a 71.8-acre manufacturing and logistics campus built around the expansion of DisTran Packaged Substations. LED said more than half of the hardstand was finished by mid-August, with finished sections already in use, and the rest is expected by Nov. 1. At the Natchitoches Parish Port in Campti, $2.55 million will pay for grading and a new warehouse foundation and slab that will nearly double the port's roughly 62,000 square feet of warehouse space. Work there is expected to begin late this year and finish in 2027. Both ports will repay the money in full, LED said.

Ben Russo, executive director of the Central Louisiana Regional Port, sees the program filling a gap in timing. "Louisiana's Port Priority Program is an extremely important source of infrastructure investment, but the backlog of approved projects can mean that funding is not available on the timeline required by private industry," he said. FastSites, he said, "helps bridge that timing gap."

The approach fits the Landry administration's broader pitch to site selectors. LED's program page says the state is "positioning itself to be the easiest and most efficient place to build, expand, and thrive." LED Secretary Susan Bourgeois framed the port awards in those terms: "As companies expand and supply chains evolve, the ability to move quickly and add capacity becomes increasingly important."

Applicants and taxpayers still have practical questions about the program. LED has not published how much first-round money has been repaid so far, and that number is the real test of whether the fund revolves. The scoring factors are public. They include market demand in priority sectors, return on investment, impact on distressed communities, site potential and due diligence, with priority for certified sites and public-private partnerships. LED also considers how the money is spread geographically. The weight given to each factor is not public, and that matters when several parishes are chasing the same dollars. LED's FAQ says privately owned sites are ineligible for loan forgiveness but does not say when forgiveness is available to public projects. Applicants also pay a $250 fee at submission.

LED plans to review applications by the end of 2026 and announce awards in early 2027.

Photo: Ken Lund / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0