Meta wants Louisiana workers, businesses to be part of its $10 billion Richland Parish project

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Meta and the three general contractors that will work on a $10 billion, 4 million-square-foot AI data center in Richland Parish were in Monroe Thursday night for the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce.  

Members of the crowd that began filing in at 4 p.m. for the 6 p.m. start of the event were hoping to talk to the three general contractors who will buy products, hire employees and select vendors for the Meta AI data center.

Those contractors are: Mortenson Construction, a general contractor headquartered in Minneapolis; DPR Construction, a company with 30 U.S. locations and three overseas offices that is headquartered in Redwood City, California; and Turner Construction, with headquarters in New York.

It was quite possibly the largest crowd ever for a Monroe Chamber of Commerce annual meeting. “We’re sold out,” said Roy Heatherly, Chamber president. He had urged people to come to the Monroe Civic Center early to find parking because of an ice hockey game next door. People did, but not just because of the hockey game.

The chance of a meeting was worth the five-hour drive for Michael Lagomarsino, whose Current Solutions Electric business is based in New Orleans. “I grew up in California in the 80s, where Silicon Valley wasn’t a thing yet, and I see this in that. I see this potentially being the next Silicon Valley.”

“They’re gonna have to hire some people, but hopefully, if they build it right, those 5000 people might stay, which I’m not opposed to. I’m looking at this and thinking I might be a Monroe resident.”



Steve Knighton and Paul Kitching of M.A. Mortenson, one of Meta’s three general contractors on the Richland Parish AI data center. 



M.A. Mortenson’s Steve Knighton and Paul Kitching were chatting with people at the front of the room. Mortenson is one of the Meta contractors and the first to be on the job, moving “a million cubic yards of dirt.”

“You’ve got to get all the materials and the workforce there, and so logistically, that’s one of our biggest challenges, from different parts of the country, plus the world—all the components that are coming, specialized electronics and gear and stuff like that.” The timing, say Knighton and Kitching, is critical.

After dinner, the contractors and Meta’s Katie Comer, the head of community development for North America, sat down for what the Chamber termed a “fireside chat.”



The Monroe, La. Chamber of Commerce’ “Fireside Chat” panel- DPR Construction’s Andy Andres, Steve Knighton of Mortenson, Meta’s Katie Comer, and Dan Harmon with Turner Construction.  



“We are looking for operators and laborers right now, and after we get start clearing the site and getting it ready, after that will be electricians and carpenters and several other skills that we are going to need,” said Knighton.

Already hired, he said, are the Five-S Group and Lemoine from Baton Rouge.

“Then the other thing we’re doing is we are signing up caterers. We’re focused on local restaurateurs and figuring out how to get caterers. And then there’s a bunch of services like tires, bolts, everything. We’re doing as much as we can to source them locally, because we get better service, if we have, you know, local suppliers meeting our needs.”

“It’s an unbelievably complex and daunting experience to build one of these mega projects. And this one is literally 10 times bigger than we’ve done before,” said Turner’s Dan Harmon. Turner and DPR will begin their work in the third quarter of this year.



Dan Harmon of Turner Construction Co., taking part in the Monroe Chamber of Commerce’ Meta “fireside chat.”


“What that means is that there are, I mean, jobs. You want to talk about jobs there—we need labor of all kinds, every trade, every type, every level of experience. We need professional staff. We need people to feed all these people we need. I mean, the amount of ramp up we need, from a employment perspective, is actually fairly daunting.”

“There is no playbook here,” agreed DPR Construction’s Andy Andres.

“Our projects, and we have the data behind it truly provide a multiplier spending effect,” said Meta’s Comer. “So it’s the hotels, it’s the restaurant, it’s the catering, but it’s also workers going out, going to local concerts, going to venues, going to restaurants.”  She said this project will bring other industries to the area.

“I mean, she’s not saying the names of the companies, but wherever Meta goes, everybody else goes as well, and becomes a sustained growth pattern. So it’s not just a flash in the pan,” said Andres.



Steve Knighton of M.A. Mortenson, taking part in the Monroe Chamber of Commerce’ “Fireside Chat.”



“Data centers are like geese,” said Knighton. “Where one goes, others follow.”

Terrell Palmer drove up from Hammond after he “just kind of caught wind” of the Chamber event. He knows that those thousands of Meta construction workers will need port-a-lets and his business, Pot O’ Gold, can provide them.

His goal is to buy land and assets and stay once the project is complete. “It’s to come here, you know, support the project, because it is something we specialize in. And then to stay in the community. And of course, when we come here, we want to hire local, we want to be local, we want to buy local.”

Andres had advice for Palmer and the others who wanted jobs or contracts. “I would say, just be a little bit aggressive in communicating with us. There’ll be a website, there’ll be different ways to communicate and engage, but if you have any complaints or issues, please email Steve Knighton,” he joked.



Andy Andres of DPR Construction taking part in the Monroe Chamber of Commerce “fireside chat.”



“If you’re looking for a certain position or a certain contracting opportunity, instead of just being in the general email, which takes us a lot of time to kind of work through and understand what people are looking for, I would strongly encourage using the website, because that will get you in the right spot faster.” “And you do have to go to all three contractors. Again, we’re not a single entity.”

Comer told the room that not all the 500 permanent Meta jobs will be high tech. “Those roles will be things like electrical engineers, security, culinary, HVAC specialists. So there is special diversity in all of our roles that we’re going to have available to the project.”

The impact could be more far-reaching, she said.



Meta’s Katie Comer and Turner Construction’s Dan Harmon at the Monroe Chamber of Commerce ‘fireside chat.’



Comer stated that the Prineville, Oregon Meta data center project helped drop the unemployment rate there from 12% to 2%. “We’re going to see growth,” she promised.

“We have folks in the construction industry and at Meta who have said, ‘I want to come home. I’m from Louisiana. I’m from this region, this industry, and this project is going to allow me to come home.’ And that’s really what this is all about.”