Sen. Hensgens says space company could bring economic boom if one locates in Vermilion Parish

Vermilion Parish is due for an economic explosion, the likes of which it has never seen, if rumors of a space exploration company developing here come to fruition.
Brownsville, Texas, is a perfect example of what can happen locally, Sen. Bob Hensgens said this week.
“If anything happens down below the Intracoastal Waterway that happened in Brownsville,” Hensgens told members of the Vermilion Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, “this economy is about to take the biggest boom that it has ever taken.”
Earlier this year, rumors began to swirl heavily about either SpaceX or Blue Origin purchasing more than 130,000 acres on which to build a facility south of Pecan Island. While it remains only rumors at this time, Hensgens said if a project does move forward with one of those companies, the economic impact could be monumental.
“Make no mistake,” Hensgens said, “we are talking Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos level of investment, the two richest men in the world.
“Like all of you, I’m taking the possibility seriously.”
While nothing is concrete, a potential project of this magnitude could set a solid foundation for the future of the parish. Hensgens said it has shown up in other places.
SpaceX has developed in Brownsville, Texas, a process that began with the purchasing of property in 2014. Construction and other processes, including FAA regulations, followed into ‘18.
“SpaceX spent $4 billion on infrastructure,” Hensgens said on Thursday. “There were $100 million in purchases from local supply and service companies. That’s sales tax generated throughout that area. You’re talking $90 million in coastal protection. They protected their $4 billion worth of stuff, and everybody else got protected, too. One magazine rated Brownsville one of the poorest cities in the nation. It is now one of the fastest improving economies in the United States.”
Hensgens referenced what the Meta’s data center has returned for local government entities in Richland Parish.
“Teachers in Richland Parish got huge 13th checks,” Hensgens said of bonus pay for educators. “Some of them got $50,000 13th checks this year. That is what these big, hyper-scale developments bring to the areas where they are.
“They change it forever, and change it for the good.”
While speaking to more than 200 people at the Rotary Club of Abbeville’s meeting, Hensgens drove home the point that this change is not imminent.
“I hold no details of a possible SpaceX or Blue Origin purchase of property in Vermilion Parish,” Hensgens said. “Like all of you, I have heard nothing but the rumors since March.”
Again, stressing the word potentially to describe the project, SpaceX or Blue Origin locating in Vermilion Parish could change it into something it has never really had the opportunity to be.
“Vermilion Parish has always been an oil field hub,” Hensgens told chamber members. “Honestly, we’ve never been the center of the oil field. We’ve never been one of the main cogs of the economy of Acadiana. If it goes further, and an announcement is made by the Governor (Jeff Landry), who has spent thousands of hours working on this possible project, we’re going to see an economy that we have never seen before.”