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F r i d ay, d e c e m b e r 5, 2025
One Acadiana marks 10 years of progress
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Shipbuilder to launch $300M expansion Saronic to add over 1,000 jobs building autonomous vessels BY ADAM DAIGLE
Acadiana business editor
STAFF PHOTOS By BRAD BOWIE
One Acadiana President and CEO Troy Wayman speaks during One Acadiana’s 10th annual regional celebration on Wednesday at Le Pavillon at Parc Lafayette.
Celebration touts region’s business successes BY ADAM DAIGLE
Acadiana business editor
What began as a complete transformation of the local Chamber of Commerce 10 years ago was celebrated on Wednesday at One Acadiana’s annual regional celebration. The move back then was to create a unified voice for the region’s business community, and now the organization previously known as Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce is a driving force in recruiting industry, attracting top talent and shaping Acadiana’s economic
stone alongside the many businesses and partners across our nine parishes making this possible.” Wayman and others involved with One Acadiana during its existence noted its impact over the decade, including how it established regional target industries, increased educational attainment and earned national recognition as an Accredited Economic Development Organization and 5-Star Chamber of Commerce. It also launched the Small & MinorDr. Vincent June, left, and Al Patin smile ity Business Services program, secured for a photo before One Acadiana’s Acadiana’s largest private capital investcelebration on Wednesday. ment with First Solar and championed urban core revitalization. It also relofuture, current President and CEO Troy cated its office to downtown Lafayette. Wayman said. The deal to land solar panel manu“Acadiana’s success over the past 10 facturer First Solar, which will employ years has demonstrated that a united, re- 800 at its site in Iberia Parish, was gional approach drives results,” he said. ä See PROGRESS, page 4A “And we are proud to celebrate this mile-
A shipbuilder that specializes in autonomous surface vessels has launched a $300 million expansion project at its Franklin plant in a move that is expected to add more than 1,000 jobs. Saronic, the Texas-based company that purchased Gulf Craft in Franklin earlier this year, announced the expansion Wednesday, along with Louisiana Economic Development and state and local elected officials. LED officials said the expansion is ex- Mavrookas pected to result in 1,500 new jobs that offer an average annual salary of $87,936 at full employment. The move will help Saronic meet a rising demand for autonomous vessels in the defense and commercial sectors. “This expansion represents what American industry can achieve when innovation and production are fully aligned,” said Dino Mavrookas, company co-founder and CEO. “Our expanded shipyard will enable us to deliver autonomous ships at unprecedented speed and scale while creating 1,500 high-quality jobs across Louisiana.” Last month, Saronic broke ground on the project, which includes adding 300,000 square feet of production capacity, LED officials said. Completion is expected by the end of 2026, with expanded operations coming online in early 2027. Plans include building three new
ä See SHIPBUILDER, page 4A
Planned sale of Toledo Bend water to Texas on hold for now Dallas company wanted to pipe water from reservoir
BY DAVID J. MITCHELL Staff writer
A developing plan to ship Toledo Bend Reservoir water to Texas is “dead” for now, following months of local and legislative opposition, and won’t be back for discussion “any time soon,” state authority officials said. But the officials who considered that deal also didn’t rule out the possibility of water sales at some
WEATHER HIGH 48 LOW 40 PAGE 14C
point in the future, even as one Vernon Parish legislator promised this week to try to block them with a bill next spring. Under the now-sidelined concept, Toledo Bend Reservoir would have supplied 200,000 acre-feet per year from Louisiana’s share of water in the lake on the western edge of the state. A Dallas company had plans to pipe that water potentially hundreds of miles west to growing population centers in Texas, where state officials say 25% of the population could face municipal water shortages by 2070 due to rising demand and shrinking supplies. Two officials with the Sabine Riv-
er Authority of Louisiana, which oversees the Louisiana side of Toledo Bend, said the lack of support from their sister agency in Texas for an important engineering study, as well as opposition from key Louisiana legislators and local parishes, led to the end of talks last month with the company, Aqueduct Partners LP. “It’s just not the right time. We had a lot of pushback from a lot of legislators,” said Jimmy Foret, an SRA of Louisiana board member who led the committee investigating a water sale. Among the legislators against
STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID J. MITCHELL
ä See WATER, page 5A Toledo Bend Reservoir is located on the Louisiana-Texas border.
Business ......................6A Commentary ................3B Nation-World................2A Classified ..................10C Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................2B Comics-Puzzles .....7C-9C Living............................5C Sports ..........................1C
101ST yEAR, NO. 158