HOST invests $50 million in Avondale, forecasts 1,000 daily workers by 2028

T. Parker Host is investing $50 million in rail, warehouse and dock capacity at Louisiana’s Avondale Global Gateway, a Mississippi River expansion it expects to support approximately 100 additional company jobs, according to its Oct. 28 announcement. Those additions would bring HOST’s workforce at the Jefferson Parish campus to more than 400 employees.

The larger labor number reaches beyond HOST’s own payroll: approximately 1,000 people working across the campus each day by 2028 as the infrastructure program and anticipated tenant projects advance. HOST says the expansion is intended both to serve existing customers and to make room for new long-term industrial operations.

Plans include a 200,000-square-foot warehouse, bringing indoor storage to approximately 1.5 million square feet. It would be Avondale’s first new building since the 1970s. Activating a fifth deepwater dock would increase capacity to handle up to six vessels simultaneously.

Rail infrastructure and the warehouse each account for approximately $15 million of the capital program. Dock improvements, roads, expanded site and laydown capacity, and equipment are each allocated $5 million. The rail work includes $6.95 million in state and local support within the overall $50 million program, including a $2.6 million interest-free loan from Louisiana Economic Development’s FastSites Program.

Avondale has signed a long-term agreement with a major energy equipment manufacturer, HOST said. The company links demand for additional capacity to growing industrial supply chains moving copper, power-generation equipment and other materials through the site, including components used in data-center development.

Infrastructure work is already underway. HOST expects the current capital program to be completed by December 2027.