Council hears detailed pitch for downtown film and entertainment economic development district

Shreveport City Council members spent much of their Sept. 9 meeting questioning an administration-drafted proposal to create an economic development district intended to incentivize large-scale private investment in downtown redevelopment tied to film and television production.

Attorney Bousada, who briefed the council, described the arrangement as a “success dependent incentive” that would reimburse a developer only after it delivered results. “The whole the prize of all this is the film and the television production,” Bousada said, explaining the proposal aims to keep pre-production, production and post-production activity in Shreveport rather than sending post-production work to other states.

Council members sought clarity about how incentives would follow property sales, oversight of the district, and the effect on longtime downtown…