England Economic & Industrial Development District

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THE ENGLAND AUTHORITY

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE AGENDA

March 23, 2026

MEMBERS: Patrick O’Quin, Chair Charlie Weems, Vice-Chair Zeb Winstead

AGENDA

1. To hear from Executive Director and Airpark Deputy Director regarding the projects being pursued for potential Airpark tenants.
2. Discussion regarding impediments to Economic Development.

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THE ENGLAND ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT March 23, 2026

The regular meeting of the Economic Development Committee of the England Economic and Industrial Development District was held on Monday, March 23, 2026, in the EEICC Conference Room, 1611 Arnold Drive, Alexandria, Louisiana.

The following were present: Mr. Patrick O’Quin, Mr. Zeb Winstead

Absent: Mr. Charlie Weems

Others present: Mr. Ralph Hennessy, Mr. Scott Gammel, Mr. David Broussard, Ms. Summer Steiner; Mr. Oday Lavergne (online), Mr. Matt Nowlin (online)

Item Number 1 Discussion:

Ucore status: Currently expecting some large equipment to go into building the week after next. Anticipating being operational in the Fall with the first product going out in the fourth quarter of the year. Plant Manager has been here for about six months. Advertising for chemists and other positions to begin soon. Mike Shrider is expected to be at the EEIDD April board meeting to provide an update. Mr. David Broussard added that they are using two instate companies. One engineering firm out of Baton Rouge and one for the modifications of the building.

Robison Lumber: Referred to EEIDD by Crest Industries. One hundred thirty -four-year-old company out of New Orleans. Tree tops and wood product waste are baked, then turned into a powdery substance called biochar. Used as fertilizer and other things. Established customer base. Letter of intent between EEIDD and Robison Biochar that lays out the terms, lease payments, as well as capital improvements to site. LOI from LED, with incentive package, has been received by Robison Biochar. Everything is in place to go forward. Star ting off with 10 acres, then an additional 10 acres, finally adding another 15 acres for a total of 35 acres. 25,000 square foot concrete pads with metal open sided structure where equipment will make the biochar; laydown yards for wood chips from various suppliers. Looking at getting feed stock from Roy O Martin, Hunt Plywood and work with Crest on some other things as well. All locally supplied from this region. Everything comes by truck. Eventually there will be a rail component. Truck scale on site. First two pieces of equipment will be manufactured overseas. After that, they will look at working with local suppliers for future needs. Looking at possibly 52 jobs, but possibly up to 100 by the end of phase 4. $23 million dollar Capex. Water, Sewer, Gas from City of Alexandria. Electricity from Cleco. Will go before the Board most likely in April.

Parc England Hotel: Five-million-dollar project to update. A couple of groups have been in touch with David recently. Applied Digital, which is the group doing the development in Boyce, Preliminary discussion only. This is a way off before a deal can be made. Second gentleman is interested in Park England Hotel and the Bistro Restaurant site to be used by his catering company. Working towards some agreements with Applied Digital. He has requested plans for both facilities. He’s from Louisiana, has done a lot of work around the country, but is looking at establishing operations here related to the Applied Digital project. Still working through some of those connections. He’s done hotel operations before and he would have a flag for hotel. His background is large scale work. He’s done work for the military, for FEMA, and Southwest Airlines.

Deli: Catering Kitchen. Hope to have it on Thursday’s agenda. Owners of Po’boy Express have an agreement with Applied Digital to do catering for their construction workers out in Boyce. They want to lease the deli for that purpose. David is currently working on details. They will put about $20,000 into development (mainly cooler). With Page 2 – Economic Development Committee 3.23.2026

that, they have an arrangement with Applied Digital, but they need additional space to do so. One year agreement with multiple options.

Project Pixel/Lightning: There is no real project as of now. Board has approved overlay district to go into effect once an agreement has been made and a CEA between EEIDD and Applied Digital outlining the pilot, then the overlay goes into place. What is going on out there today (site prep, drilling, pads, etc.) is on them.

Time Trend: Old Base Exchange building, only in operation for brief two-year period or so. Vacant since that time. Shelton used parking lot and small space in lobby. Shelton is no longer there. Some work has been done to get the building to where it can be used as warehouse space. Building is 34,000 square feet. 30,000 square feet warehouse and the rest for office and support. Possibly looking at using that with Applied Digital but also looking at making some improvements ourselves. Money in next year’s budget to do some roof work.

Additional Warehouse Development: David has had discussions with Brown Eagle (warehouse work for chemical industry). Russell Wilkes, owner’s son, came and met with us a few weeks ago. Possibly interested in building warehouse space here to support the area. Asked to be connected to Proctor and Gamble, as well as Cavalry, to see if there is the opportunity for them to enter the market. Talked about doing a land lease with them, with possibility for more in the future.

Hospital Lease: In contact with Ochsner Health. Meeting scheduled for early April regarding using hospital. Very preliminary.

AST Turbo: Moving into year 3 in building in field maintenance unit. Oilfield services company. Office space and bay, with another bay on the back side of them that is supposed to be used by FPM, doing environmental work. They haven’t used it yet. AST is growing and hiring more people. Looking into moving them into the second bay in the April/May time frame. The lease will be amended to add that space. David will speak to Brad Juneau with FPM today or tomorrow.

LaSalle Family Foundation: Five-year deal was approved last month. Nice revenue generator. Matt is working with LaSalle and the government with the two agreements. He has taken it as far as he can. About 75% complete; needs information from government. At a standstill but this is the process of getting things here. They know that we are waiting on them.

Project Jerry: on Hwy 28 West. Tenant is w orking through issues with the City and the sewer line, to be incorporated into the city or not. Wanting to work with us and move through.

UTLX expansion: UTLX has approached us about expanding their footprint onto property we own. Mr. David Broussard explained in more detail what they are interested in doing. It would be a lease deal.

Corps of Engineers and ISB lease: Current ISB lease expires soon. 200 acres give or take with Federal government. Working on new terms for a new lease. Past lease has been handled with amendments. Dollar amount of agreement has escalated over time because of the CPI, they must look at some things differently. They must do surveys and appraisals of everything they want to lease. Federal government came out with new lease form. Current lease has all acreage, including buildings. New lease will have acreage and square footage of buildings. When the current lease expires, they will still pay current amount until the new lease is ready.

Page 3 – Economic Development Committee 3.23.2026

Item Number 2 Discussion:

West Side: Currently raw land. Not much in the way of utilities. Going back and forth with Cleco and Ucore concerning power supply. About $8 million dollars to run a redundant line. Phase 1 doesn’t need $8 million of infrastructure. Some needed for Phase 2. Didn’t put in for the full $8 million dollars on Fast Sites loan. We must repay 50% to 80% of that within five years. Working on another State Program through the Governor’s office (true grant) on the West Side and loop around to bring in redundant power, which will give us all we need. First part of Ucore deal is about $1.6 million. Cleco money leftover from first sale to be used for economic development. LED on board with that. Ucore has said that they will put up upwards of $1 million. Two pots of money to go towards Phase

1. Master plan for west side: Large aircraft maintenance, industrial site, manufacturing, etc.

Utilities for West Side are current impediments. Electricity and Cleco have limited available capacity for new largescale projects. They are working on adding capacity, but it is some years down the road. There are some shortcomings with power generation in the area. Cleco is working on trying to alleviate some of that. It is not unique to Central Louisiana. Met with some site developers, National issue. Utility companies can’t just invest capital in infrastructure and then just have it wait 5, 10 years. Rate payers must pay for infrastructure through the rates. Legislators have put controls in to limit some of that stuff.

Certified Sites: Developers and utility companies locked in options on certified sites to give them the option if they wanted to develop that. That took up a lot of land for large scale manufacturing. Working with LED and Louisiana Central looking at our land to see if it’s possible to do more certified sites.

Mr. Patrick O’Quin, Committee Chair ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE England Economic and Industrial Development District