The air is out of the big balloon on the economic impact of Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson coming to Shreveport. The lease of the Millennium Studios is now entering into its eleventh month. And guess what--no filming activities at this location.
There have been many reasons aka excuses for non-action by Jackson:
1. He needs to acquire another building adjacent to the Millennium Studios
2. His attention was focused on the Humor & Harmony Festival (HHF), which was three months ago
3. He is waiting to see if the film/production tax credits are eliminated by the ongoing special session of the Louisiana Legislature.
This "reasoning" ignores a very basic reality. The pot of gold tax credits are on the books until June 30 of next year. Then the legislation sunsets. They expire automatically unless further action is taken by the Legislature in the 2025 regular session to extend these.
Certainly, Jackson knew that the tax credits were on the books for 18 months after the January 1, 2024, effective date of the Millenium lease. Likewise, Jeff Landry won the governorship in October of last year, running on a platform of tax reform.
Jackson has touted the great success of his HHF. But he has not released any financial numbers on the profit/loss of the festival. Many who like to number crunch have concluded it was a big loss to Jackson. But with a $15 million gig upcoming in Vegas for 6 performances the loss from HHF is just a minor hit to his pocketbook.
Jackson did spend $2 million plus on downtown properties. To date the only economic benefit of these purchases was to the sellers of the properties and the realtors. Nothing has been done on any of them to improve downtown, with the exception of more paving on the city block he purchased on Market which still is an underused parking lot.
Jackson' recent thank you to Shreveport posted on social media touted 16 days with no violent crime during the festival. This claim is an overstatement to say the least unless he defines "violent crime" to be murders and rapes.
The cherry on top is that no bean counters have been able to identify any sales tax bump attributable to the HHF. In the cordoned off entertainment zone there were plenty of pop up vendors who took in large sums of money, most of which was reported. So much for that justification for the City expending major sums to accommodate the festival.
Another blow to any downtown development plans is the expiration of the historic credits for downtown building renovations on June 30 of next year. If Jackson wants to take advantage of these, he needs to get hustling on the properties he purchased. He can only be certain that they will be on the books for seven plus more months.
To say there are major uncertainties on tax credits/incentives available to Jackson (and others) as of July 1 of next year is a major understatement. To be brutally honest, no one should expect any action by Jackson on film production/downtown development this year or the first six months of 2025. One just hopes he pays the Caddo/ Shreveport ad valorem real estate taxes on his recent real estate buys by year end.