Super Bowl & Trader Joes - Top business headlines for 2025!

While 2024 isn't quite over yet, this is the time of the year when people start to look toward the future. Here are some of the things that could be the top Louisiana business news headlines in 2025.

Casino changes

Two new, land-based casinos are set to open in Louisiana in 2025.

Live! Casino & Hotel Louisiana is scheduled to start taking bets on Feb. 13. The $270 million casino is being built at the site of the former Diamond Jacks Casino and Hotel in Bossier City. Cordish Cos., a Baltimore-based entertainment firm, will be the owner. Cordish's other holdings include the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa, Florida; Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia; and Texas Live! in the Arlington Entertainment District.

A revamped Belle of Baton Rouge is scheduled to open in the fall. The casino, the oldest in the Baton Rouge market, is moving into its 50,000-square-foot atrium. A sportsbook, oyster bar/bistro and a wine bar will be part of the $141 million renovation. A remodeled 250-room hotel is set for completion in March; the property has been closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The property is also going to get a new name. Officials with The Queen Casino & Entertainment, which owns the Belle and The Queen, said the new name will "pay homage to the history of Catfish Town."

Super Bowl returns to New Orleans

The Super Bowl will be played Feb. 9 in the Caesars Superdome, the eighth time the iconic venue has hosted the big game. The event is projected to have a $500 million economic impact on New Orleans, thanks to the hundreds of thousands of tourists the game will attract. A weeklong series of events will be held before the kickoff, including a sneak preview tour of Superdome's Super Bowl decor, a concert at the Mahalia Jackson Theater and a Carnival-style parade, with Raising Cane's Todd Graves serving as king. Graves sees the Super Bowl parade as a social media bonanza in which images of New Orleans will explode across the internet. To that end, he plans to invite celebrities to ride with him, drawing attention to the event.

$7.5 billion ammonia plant decision

Clean Hydrogen Works is set to make a final investment decision in late 2025 on building a $7.5 billion ammonia plant in Ascension Parish. Ascension Clean Energy would be built on a 1,700-acre site on the west bank of the parish, near Modeste. The plant will produce "blue" ammonia, meaning carbon capture will be used to mitigate emissions. The ammonia would be used as an energy feedstock around the world. A marine terminal would be built to allow for shipping.

The project, which is backed by ExxonMobil, Japanese Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and Singapore-based Hafnia, is expected to create 1,500 construction jobs and 350 permanent jobs. A plant manager has been hired for the facility, and an office is open in downtown Donaldsonville to answer questions the public may have about the facility.

A Trump boost for oil and gas

President-elect Donald Trump is promising to boost oil and gas production when he returns to the White House in 2025, a move that could have major implications for Louisiana. The oil and gas sector shed about 2,500 jobs statewide between the first quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2024.

Trump is eyeing a move to lift the Biden administration's order delaying the construction of liquefied natural gas facilities, which could boost two LNG facilities caught in regulatory limbo.

But outside factors could have an impact on increased oil and gas activity. Crude oil prices have hovered in the $70 a barrel range since the presidential election because of reduced global demand. OPEC plans to keep production reduced in order to keep oil prices stable. Even with a powerful backer in their corner, companies won't boost drilling in the Gulf of Mexico if it isn't economically feasible. 

Fate of the Four Seasons 

The $564 redevelopment of the former World Trade Center, a Four Seasons hotel and luxury condominiums, was one of the crowning achievements of Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration. But the premier project has been a financial disaster for investors, and the developer was in default of a loan agreement with its mortgage lender. The hotel business has been hampered by slow convention business, and high-interest rates have made it difficult to sell the pricey condos, despite high-profile sales to former New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and businessman Boysie Bollinger. As of April, about half of the residential space in the building was unsold. Lenders are finalizing a deal that would wipe out the equity investors, which has implications on the health of the local hotel and condo market. The Four Seasons brand will remain, so tourists won't notice the changes.  

Ochsner Children's Hospital to take shape

Ochsner is set to break ground this year on a five-story, stand-alone children's hospital building on its flagship campus in Old Jefferson. At 343,000 square feet, the new building, which will be called The Gayle and Tom Benson Ochsner Children's Hospital, will have more beds, a larger emergency department and enhanced spaces for surgeries and specialty care. Ochsner says the hospital will enable it to serve more sick children, attract more specialists and improve the overall quality of pediatric care in the region.

It will also open a new front in the battle for patient care between the state's largest health system and its chief rival, LCMC Health, whose flagship Children's Hospital of New Orleans completed a $300 million renovation to its Uptown campus in 2022.

Trader Joe's in New Orleans

Trader Joe's is building its first Orleans Parish store on Tulane Avenue. The 13,000-square-foot store would carry the chain's unique mix of private-label products, such as Speculoos cookie butter, everything bagel seasoning and elote corn chip dippers. It's set to open in the middle of the year, but that could be delayed due to a legal fight. A group of Mid-City residents filed suit, charging that waivers for zoning restrictions regarding parking and traffic flow were improperly granted. Mary Howell, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said they were not trying to block the Trader Joe's from opening on Tulane but wanted to ensure its backers had to follow the same rules as everyone else. A district judge ruled waivers were improperly granted. The Feil Organization, which is building Trader Joe's, plans to challenge the ruling in appellate court. Meanwhile construction is ongoing.

Bright times for First Solar

First Solar is set to begin manufacturing at its Iberia Parish plant in the second half of 2025. More than 700 people will work at the $1.1 billion facility, which will make solar panels with all U.S.-made components. The effects of the plant won't just be limited to Acadiana; Ice Industries will open a manufacturing plant in Jefferson Davis Parish that will supply First Solar with steel-backed rails for solar panels. That plant, which will have 70 workers, is set to begin production in early 2025.