Creates jobs with average salary of $100,000
A Norwegian firm with a facility in St. Rose committed to an expansion that will more than double its current capacity and bring an estimated $200 million into St. Charles Parish over the next decade through construction costs and wages.
“This is a big win for the parish and it’s a great step in diversifying the local economy,” said St. Charles Parish Economic Development Director Corey Faucheux. “These are some of the highest paying jobs [in the parish] that are not in a manufacturing setting.”
In December, Faucheux told the council that the then-unnamed expansion project’s salaries, per job, would average $100,000. Jon Hovlik, president of Kongsberg Maritime Inc., said the jobs will emphasize electrical and electronics engineering, as well as software development.
Kongsberg Maritime purchased 5.2 acres on James Drive East in St. Rose and intends to break ground on a three-story, roughly 83,000-square-foot facility in the spring. Hovlik said the $19 million building will span three acres, with the remaining acreage reserved for future expansion.
“Instead of gradually expanding and spending millions redesigning old spaces to meet our needs, our board of directors put the challenge to us to and said, ‘where do we need to stay for the next 10 to 15 years?’” Hovlik said.
Faucheux said negotiations with the company began a few years ago, with various starts and stops in the project. St. Charles Parish, he said, competed against other locations. Hovlik said that in addition to unnamed locations “around New Orleans,” the company also considered reconsolidating its offices in Houston.
“It was my top priority to retain [Kongsberg] in order to ensure that our residents have the opportunity to gain access to high-paying jobs that add to the diversification of our local economy,” Parish President V.J. St. Pierre said in a statement.
Hovlik said that tax incentives offered by the parish played a big role in the company’s decision to expand in St. Rose. Faucheux said the parish was looking at a performance-based “payment in lieu of tax” system for encouraging the company to keep its operations here, in addition to other options.
However, neither Hovlik nor Faucheux would disclose official terms of the incentives agreement, with Faucheux noting that the parish was still in negotiations with Kongsberg.
“[This deal] shows that St. Charles Parish can compete–not just for the more industrial projects, but that we can successfully compete for technology projects like this,” Faucheux said. “At its heart, [Kongsberg] is a technology company.”
The company originally moved its service department from Houston to St. Rose in 2003, employing nine people at that time. Since then, the company has grown to employ 110.
Though the expansion provides enough room to more than double the number of employees, Holvik said in an email provided to the Associated Press that “it is difficult to say exactly how many more employees will be hired.”
Based in Norway, the 200-year-old Kongsberg Maritime specializes in technological systems that help with servicing different seafaring vessels and offshore rigs. The facility will include a center that trains its customers on the company’s products. Hovlik said many of its customers are based in the Gulf Coast, south of New Orleans.
“Despite a low oil price and a downturn in the offshore markets, we believe the market will bounce back as it always does,” Holvik said. “Our regional customer base has grown significantly and it is important to continue to offer them the world’s best service facilities close to their operation.”
Editor’s note: a previous version of this article misstated the square footage of the new facility. The company’s currently leased office space totals 35,000 square feet, while the new facility will be 82,980 square feet.
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