The year 2025 is an exciting one for Jefferson Parish. Yes, the parish is celebrating its bicentennial. But it’s also celebrating a flurry of exciting economic developments — so many that it’s impossible to fit them all in a single article.
“It’s been an exciting run of events,” said Jerry Bologna, president and CEO of the Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission (JEDCO).
Bologna credits the recent run of economic success to multiple factors. “People find a high quality of life, a responsive government, and strong cooperation between business, civic, and elected communities in Jefferson Parish,” Bologna said.
One such development in Jefferson Parish is Primary Workspace. Located at 519 Huey P. Long Avenue in Old Gretna, the shared office space is a project from Formwork Development. The facility had a soft opening in January of this year and had its official ribbon cutting on Valentine’s Day.
Primary Workspace is housed in the former Gretna Primary School building. The building dates back to 1911 when it was Gretna’s first primary school. Most of the building has been unoccupied for about 50 years.
There are a variety of options for interested workers. There is a private office available at $750 a month, a dedicated desk at $275 a month, and access to any open table in a shared space at $165 a month.
There are 20 private offices and a number of desks and tables in shared spaces. At full capacity, Primary Workspace can fit 200 workers. There are four conference rooms, two of which can be combined to make a boardroom that can accommodate 40-50 people.
High-speed wi-fi, mail services, and printing services are offered on-site.
David Hecht, founder and principal of Formwork Development, said Jefferson Parish was an attractive place to launch the project because it is the largest parish in the state by population. This means a lot of people who live there would appreciate a working space that allows them to be closer to home.
“Primary Workspace meets the changing needs of today’s workers by providing a beautiful, amenitized office community proximate to residential neighborhoods,” said Hecht.
Hecht added that Primary Workspace should also have positive spillover effects for other local businesses, such as restaurants and coffee shops, in the downtown Gretna area.
But Primary Workspace is far from the only Jefferson Parish success story in 2025.
UBE, a Japanese chemical company known for manufacturing ingredients used in electric vehicles’ lithium-ion batteries, broke ground on a manufacturing facility in Cornerstone Energy Park in Waggaman on February 13. Bologna said the facility will be the first of its kind in the U.S. and lead directly to 58 new jobs. It will also decrease American reliance on imports for electric vehicle components.
RNGD, a leader in commercial construction and design, opened an expansive new headquarters near Labarre Road in February. The $25 million investment from RNGD (formerly Palmisano) will create 130 new jobs in Jefferson Parish and retain 265 jobs. The eight-acre campus will feature a manufacturing facility, office building, and a 25,000 square-foot training academy to educate the construction workforce.
Perrone & Sons, a 100-year-old food manufacturer and distributor that employs 90 people, held a ribbon cutting for a second Jefferson Parish location on February 18. The location will be down the street from their old facility on L & A Road. The project was a $1.4 million investment and will enhance the company’s production abilities.
Reily Foods moved to a new facility in Elmwood in March 2025. Reily makes many local food brands, including Blue Plate Mayonnaise and Luzianne Tea. 500 jobs will be retained as a result of the relocation.
In October 2024, JEDCO announced it received $4.2 million in grant funding for the design, engineering, and construction of the Greater New Orleans Food and Beverage Incubator. $2 million came from the Economic Development Administration. $2.2 million came from the Jefferson Parish Council, LED, and JEDCO. The facility will be 15,000 square-feet and feature three commercial kitchens for demonstrations and training. There will also be offices and storage space. Construction is expected to begin later this year.
Ochsner Medical Center is already an important part of the Jefferson Parish economy, and they broke ground on April 29 on the Gayle and Tom Benson Ochsner Children’s Hospital. Ochsner is building the five-story, 343,000 square-foot, $300 million facility on their main campus. This will be the largest construction project in Ochsner’s history, creating 200 construction jobs and 400 new permanent jobs.
Jefferson Parish will not be resting on its laurels with these new projects. JEDCO launched the “More Here” campaign in December 2024, a PR and marketing effort designed to drive interest and investment in the parish.
Existing businesses are also happy with what they find in Jefferson Parish. WRSTBND, a company that handles access control, credentialing, on-site payments, registration, data capture, and fulfillment for large events (ESSENCE Festival has been one of their clients) is located in Elmwood. They originally had an Orleans Parish location as well, but consolidated after the pandemic to the Jefferson Parish location.
“We fell in love with the (Elmwood) location,” said, Conway Solomon, CEO & Co-Founder of WRSTBND.
Solomon appreciates Jefferson Parish as a place to do business for a variety of reasons. Ease of access is one of them. His employees come from different parts of the Greater New Orleans Area, and the Elmwood location is convenient to many parts of both Orleans Parish and other parts of Jefferson Parish thanks to its proximity to the Earhart Expressway and the Huey P. Long Bridge.
“It’s a convenient, easy place for us to be,” Solomon said.
Solomon added that JEDCO and the Jefferson Parish government have been consistently eager to help with any issues WRSTBND encounters.
“Jefferson Parish has genuinely surprised me with the resources they have been willing to provide us,” Solomon said. “They are responsive and make things easy to deal with every step of the way.”
