Former Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu are set to share a Baton Rouge stage later this month to wrestle with a question dogging the state: can Louisiana turn a historic wave of corporate investment into lasting prosperity for the people who already live there? The two will appear together on October 22 at the Manship Theatre for a conversation titled Louisiana at an Inflection Point, part of the 2026 Louisiana Smart Growth Summit running October 21-22 in downtown Baton Rouge.
Joining them will be Camille Manning-Broome, president and CEO of the Center for Planning Excellence, the Baton Rouge-based nonprofit hosting the summit, according to Biz New Orleans. The discussion will focus on translating new investment into lasting prosperity while confronting infrastructure demands, population decline and community development, the outlet reports. Manning-Broome was named chair of the Smart Growth America Board of Directors on October 7, a role that recognizes her two decades of planning work, including co-authoring Louisiana's first Coastal Master Plan and leading recovery initiatives after Hurricane Katrina, according to Smart Growth America. She previously served as Deputy Director of Operations for FEMA's Long-Term Community Recovery program in Louisiana.
A $250 Billion Investment Wave
Louisiana has attracted announcements for major investments in artificial intelligence, energy and industrial development, with more than $250 billion in new private investment announced since 2024, the summit's organizers note. Louisiana Economic Development reports the state leads the nation in announced capital investment this year, per the same article from Biz New Orleans.
The scale of individual projects helps explain that figure. Meta's Richland Parish AI Data Center commitment was announced at more than $50 billion in July, creating a nearly 10-million-square-foot facility with 5 gigawatts of IT capacity to host its Hyperion AI training cluster. The project is one of the state's largest private investments, according to Louisiana Economic Development. The project is expected to support 7,500 peak construction jobs and 1,000 permanent operational roles in rural Northeast Louisiana. Amazon followed in August by raising its Northwest Louisiana data center investment to $18 billion, adding a third campus in Shreveport that extends the company's footprint across Caddo and Bossier Parishes — a $6 billion jump from its initial $12 billion announcement earlier in the year.
Then there's SpaceX. The company and state officials announced plans in August for a $100 billion, 125,000-acre spaceport called Starbase Louisiana in Vermilion Parish, designed with up to 10 launch pads to support thousands of Starship launches per year, CBS News reported. Coastal permit applications for initial road, wharf and bridge construction were formally submitted in late September.
Population Rebound, Grid and Water Strain
Louisiana faces rising demand on power-grid and freshwater resources, infrastructure needs and what organizers describe as persistent population decline, even as recent Census figures show an unexpected reversal. U.S. Census Bureau data compiled this year showed Louisiana's population grew by 16,100 residents in 2024 and 3,300 in 2025, after shrinking year after year from 2016 through 2023 and increasing between July 2023 and June 2024, according to The Data Center. That uptick was driven primarily by a drop in out-migration and increased international immigration rather than a surge in domestic move-ins, per the same analysis.
Manning-Broome said CPEX sees a rare opportunity to build a Louisiana that retains talented residents, attracts newcomers and grows its economy and culture, according to Biz New Orleans. Growth planned with communities at the center, she said, can demonstrate how to grow the right way.
Edwards and Landrieu's Records
Edwards, who served as governor from 2016 to 2024, oversaw Louisiana's implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, which brought more than $10 billion in announced federal funding to the state, per Biz New Orleans. His administration also introduced reforms to the Industrial Tax Exemption Program that gave local communities — school boards, sheriff offices and municipal councils — a greater voice in tax decisions on large industrial investments, developed the state's first climate action plan, and allocated funding for passenger rail service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
That rail push has had a mixed record since. Edwards secured $50 million in state funding for the Baton Rouge-to-New Orleans line, but Louisiana missed out on a $200 million federal grant in December 2023, receiving only $500,000 for environmental and service development studies expected to wrap up by 2025, according to the Baton Rouge Business Report.
Louisiana's industrial tax exemption program has since been the subject of tax reform legislation, according to WWNO. Landrieu, meanwhile, brings a different chapter of crisis response to the stage: he served as lieutenant governor during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, later became mayor of New Orleans overseeing the city's recovery and rebuilding, and went on to lead the White House's implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, per Biz New Orleans.
Summit Details and Keynote Speakers
CPEX, which hosts the Smart Growth Summit, was founded in 2006 following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and works on community planning, policy and implementation supporting economic development, resilience and quality of life, including its Louisiana Speaks regional planning initiative. This year's gathering, themed Powering Place and Prosperity, marks the organization's 20th anniversary.
MacArthur fellow and Peabody Award-winning broadcaster Majora Carter will deliver the opening keynote on October 21. Carter, also a real estate developer, has said that nobody should have to move out of their neighborhood to live in a better one — words now inscribed at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, per Biz New Orleans. Urban3 principal Joe Minicozzi will deliver his own keynote on October 22, sharing revenue-per-acre fiscal mapping data from Louisiana communities to show whether proposed developments generate enough tax revenue to sustain long-term municipal infrastructure, according to Urban3.
The first evening also includes a CPEX 20th anniversary reception from 4:30 to 6 p.m. followed by PechaKucha Night Baton Rouge Vol. 19 from 6 to 8 p.m., featuring rapid-fire presentations by Louisiana leaders on the state's next 20 years, concluding with remarks from Boo Thomas. Mayors can also take part in the invitation-only Mayors Action Lab, a working session addressing shared municipal challenges and strategies.
Heat, Housing and Registration
Summit sessions will cover energy and the power grid, housing and affordability, climate resilience and insurance, transportation, and small towns and rural communities, with preapproved continuing-education hours available for planners, attorneys, landscape architects, realtors, certified floodplain managers and architects. Sessions will also address shade canopy and heat-response urban planning. Historic redlining patterns and urban heat island effects leave lower-income urban neighborhoods disproportionately exposed to extreme heat.
The Louisiana at an Inflection Point luncheon featuring Edwards, Landrieu and Manning-Broome runs from noon to 1:45 p.m. on October 22 at the Manship Theatre, 100 Lafayette St. in downtown Baton Rouge, with the conversation itself beginning at 12:15 p.m. Registration details and additional summit information are available at summit.cpex.org.
