Ruston experiencing economic development boom
Leader photo by Nancy Bergeron Groundbreaking ceremonies were held in April for a multi-phase project that that will turn Ruston's historic diesel power plant site into more than 60 luxury apartments, an underground restaurant and 40,000 square feet of commercial space. Developer Michael Echols, of Monroe, uses renderings of the proposed Power and Light District to explain how the development will look.
The city of Ruston is experiencing a record economic development boom that Mayor Ronny Walker attributes to voters’ passage of his Moving Ruston Forward initiative eight years ago.
Some $137 million in privately funded construction projects are either already started or soon to get underway in the city, Walker said Monday.
“It’s a lot of private investment we’re very proud of coming to Ruston,” he said.
That figure doesn’t include up to $17 million of work scheduled on the Louisiana Tech University campus, another roughly $12 million in city projects, or the Buc-ee’s Travel Center, Walker said.
The $137 million represents 17 entities, 12 of which are from outside Ruston. Of that dozen, over half are out-of-state companies, Walker said.
The coming developments include restaurants, four housing complexes targeting university students, the JPMorgan Chase operations center, and the transformation Ruston old diesel power plant on East Mississippi Avenue into a multi-use commercial and residential area.
Walker said the construction boom, the biggest in recent years, is a testament to the city’s infrastructure improvement program funded primarily by the three-quarter-cent sales tax increase voters approved in 2016.
“I think it shows the investment we’ve made in the city over the last eight or nine years in infrastructure has paid off,” Walker said. “It goes back to the people of Ruston passing Moving Ruston Forward.”
Among other things, the 20-year tax is funding water, sewer, and street upgrades citywide, as well as the municipal sports complex.
Also since 2016, the city has won millions of dollars in grants and state and federal funding for other recreational opportunities and the Monroe Street Corridor.
