Tech Pointe II underway
Leader photo by CALEB DANIEL Tech Pointe II, an expansion of Louisiana Tech’s Enterprise Campus, is projected to open on the corner of Dan Reneau Drive and Homer Street in October of 2023 and is already fully booked with corporate tenants.
About two and a half years after it was first announced, work has begun on the latest expansion to Louisiana Tech University’s Enterprise Campus: Tech Pointe II.
The parking lot on the corner of Dan Reneau Drive and Homer Street has been cleared, and dirt work has begun to prepare the site for the $15 million commercial office building that, like the original Tech Pointe, will provide space for the university’s corporate tenants.
Officials say Tech has already inked Memoranda of Understanding with enough companies to book 100% of the new building’s space.
Tech President Les Guice and Gov. John Bel Edwards first unveiled the plans for Tech Pointe II in the fall of 2019.
It’s funded by $7.5 million from the state’s economic development office and a matching $7.5 million from Tech’s nonprofit fundraising arm.
After a few delays, the building is now expected to open in October of 2023 at the end of a 15-month build.
When it was first revealed, Tech Pointe II was estimated to generate 750 new technology jobs and over $500 million in economic impact to north Louisiana over the next decade.
Like Tech Pointe, the new site will include enough parking for the employees of the corporate tenants.
Anticipating a meshwork of construction projects in the area from both Tech and the city of Ruston over the next couple years, the university is rolling out a shuttle service to take students to class starting this fall.
Tech plans to encourage students to park at the relatively new parking lot on the corner of Tech Drive and Alabama Avenue, where the shuttle service can ferry them to classes from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
