New Orleans has 28 million square feet of office space and 8 million feet of warehouse/industrial space. Most of that is displaced for several months. Pretty much everything in the capital region is going to be scooped up in the next few days.
Some of these are small companies that don't have disaster insurance or disaster recovery plans.
There's going to be a huge increase in the population of Baton Rouge. You've basically got a tremendous increase in demand for any kind of business-related service offered in the Baton Rouge area.
The most unfortunate thing is we do not have enough space to accommodate the companies that have been displaced.
It doesn't take long to get in a big hole. You've got an entire market that's down, and it will probably be down for six months.
The common need is cash. Cash meets payroll. Cash pays business loans.
We've met our 10-year business-development plan in just a few weeks. It's an opportunity, but it's a difficult situation because it's within all our interests for New Orleans to get back on its feet.
If everything works out well, we'll pick some of the (cultural) elements from New Orleans, like the high-end restaurants. That will sort of add to the fabric and character here, without taking away anything from New Orleans.
There's so many businesses that are vulnerable right now.
I really think five years from now people will be talking about Baton Rouge the way they talked about Austin (Texas) five years ago.
