Encore Development

Hi, I'm Ed Hoover, I'm the owner of Encore Development company. We've been in the Hammond market and business sector probably 50 years, at least I have. Every day, every week, every month, there's new opportunities in Hammond come along. So we are entrenched in Hammond. 99% of our investments are in Tangipahoa Parish with 90% of that in the Hammond market. One reason why the Hammond market is so great to be into, besides the two interstates that cross here; you know a lot of our tenants in the warehouse business, they love it because they go North, South, East, West from the Hammond market.

But the biggest asset we have in this marketplace is the people. You know with the labor pool in Hammond we have no problem. You know we can find people to work. In fact all our buildings we use local folks. We got building crews, we have concrete crews, we have construction crews; it's all here in Hammond. We have such an array of talent in this area, you would never have a problem.

Southeastern is a big asset to have here, because in this Hammond market we've got a great institution for learning, and then we have great professors over there. So it all ties in. We've got a great trade school out there by the airport. I mean, what more does a company want when they come here?

If a business is considering to move to Hammond and open up, I would tell them you better consider why you shouldn't move to Hammond. Because all the pluses are there. It's the best place to be. And if it wasn't the best place to be, I would have known the last 50 years and I would've been out of here - but I'm not going anywhere else.