By Judith Roberts
Louisiana Tech celebrated the newest addition to its Enterprise Campus yesterday with a ribbon cutting for Tech Pointe II, located at the corner of Dan Reneau Drive and Homer Street.
Tech Pointe II will house three companies — Radiance Technologies, Crossmark Management Group, and LA New Product Development Team.
Tech President Les Guice, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, and Argent Financial CEO Kyle McDonald gave opening remarks before the ribbon cutting and public touring of the facility.
Guice thanked Edwards for his continued support of Louisiana Tech, from his very first weeks as the state’s governor.
“We’re very fortunate over these past eight years,” Guice said. “(Edwards) visited our campus in his first two weeks in office. And I think that says a lot about his commitment to our community. And he also came here on April 25, 2019, to support us in the recovery of the E-3 tornado that tore through our campus and our community. And he supported us in rebuilding our facilities and restoring our grounds.
“Without his leadership and his commitment to higher education, we wouldn’t have many of the facilities that we have today. And I should note this integrated engineering and science building across the street was the only new building he authorized in his first year as governor. What a difference that has made for us and this whole community.”
Edwards said Tech Pointe II was largely possibly due to Guice’s visionary leadership and that when he first toured Tech’s campus, Guice showed him land where he wanted the integrated engineering and science building to go and the hope for Tech Pointe II.
“I’m happy to be here because what this represents is that we are strategically investing in our most critical priorities,” Edwards said. “And there is nothing more important, no one more important than higher education. Success begets success, and every time a tenant comes here and they are successful by working with Tech students, they’re creating their talent pipeline. Then you’re just going to see more and more companies come here. They are going to invest, and it is a virtuous cycle. That’s what the leadership here in Lincoln Parish and Ruston and at Louisiana Tech University understand. And I’m very much appreciative of that.”
Edwards said these critical strategic investments need to continue in the state.
“Either you’re moving forward or you’re moving backwards, because everything we do is relative to what’s happening around us in our sister states with whom we are competing,” he said. “And I believe we all understand that now. And I feel very fortunate to be here, just as I was here a couple of weeks into my first term. I’m here with just a few weeks to go in my second term before I go home. So these are perfect bookends for me. This trip to Louisiana today is an affirmation of what we sought to accomplish and the fact that in large part we have done it here in Louisiana and there is a reason why the I-20 corridor is gaining attention all over the country.
“If we will just stay on the course, there will be much more investment here, many more opportunities, much more prosperity and growth when it comes from investment in our people, the most precious natural resource God is entrusted to us are these students walking between these classrooms. And this is what we need to continue. This has always been (Guice’s) vision and we’re better off for it.”
