A space exploration company is negotiating to buy a large amount of coastal land in southwest Louisiana, a state lawmaker confirmed Thursday.
State Sen. Bob Hensgens, R-Abbeville, said he knows of two companies — he did not reveal if it is Elon Musk-owned SpaceX or Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin — that have reached out to landowners in coastal Vermilion and Cameron parishes about a possible acquisition.
“I know both companies are trying to find property in southwest Louisiana,” Hensgens said. “I know from people in the parishes that the companies have made outreach in the area.”
The confirmation comes ahead of a hearing next week on the final piece of legislation in an incentive package designed to attract aerospace companies to Louisiana. The bills would offer tax incentives while limiting certain lawsuits and exempting some records from public disclosure.
A legislative committee on Monday will take up the final piece of the aerospace incentive package. The bill, by Rep. Jack MacFarland, R-Jonesboro, would shield aerospace companies from lawsuits related to harm or damages their rockets cause to people and properties.
Several legislators have signed nondisclosure agreements at the request of Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration precluding them from discussing specifics about the bills or a potential aerospace company. Hensgens is the first elected official to go on record confirming it.
He said he did not sign the NDA because he did not believe it was fair to his constituents.
If the deal happens, it would bring billions in revenue to the parish along with about $100 million for coastal restoration, Hensgens said.
Hensgens said he does not have firsthand knowledge of how much property the aerospace company or companies are looking to acquire. But he said at least one company is in talks with large landowners in the area.
The unincorporated Vermilion Parish community of Pecan Island, with a population of about 100 people along Louisiana Highway 82, is believed to be a potential location for the construction of a massive SpaceX spaceport.
By STEPHANIE RIEGEL | Staff writer
The largest landowner in Vermilion Parish is the Exxon Corporation, which owns 136,000 acres, or 212 square miles — roughly the size of Chicago — of mostly swampland and marsh along the coast. A popular spot for local sportsmen and hunting and fishing camps, the land is managed by the Abbeville-based Vermilion Corporation, which subleases the land to hunters.
The board chairman of Vermilion Corp., New Iberia attorney Porteous Burke, did not respond to multiple requests seeking comment.
Exxon has owned the land since the late 1950s. In 2022, the company announced it would pursue a carbon capture sequestration facility on the property. Company officials at the time did not anticipate the need to terminate existing leases for the project.
The project received approval from the EPA in mid-2023 and was submitted for approval by the Louisiana Department of Energy & Natural Resources in February 2024. But the project never received administrative approval and sat in limbo for two years before being withdrawn on Feb. 20 of this year, a DENR official confirmed.
Exxon neither announced the withdrawal nor offered updates after releasing plans for the project in 2024. It is unclear whether the withdrawal is related to the reported negotiations with the aerospace company.
A spokesperson for Exxon confirmed the company withdrew the permit application in February and said it will “continue assessing its (the property’s) competitiveness as part of our portfolio of storage sites across the state.”
Officials with Louisiana Economic Development have declined to comment on a potential deal. But when the legislative incentive package was introduced last month, LED Secretary Susan Bourgeois said, “Since the beginning of Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration, every effort and initiative out of this department has been centered around positioning Louisiana to compete and win. “These measures put Louisiana on equal footing with our peer Southern states and create pathways for opportunities for our people.”
Speculation grows
In recent days, speculation about a potential deal has been the subject of local real estate blogs and coffee shop chatter in the Acadiana area and has also found its way onto internet message boards that monitor SpaceX, Musk and aerospace companies.
In the tiny town of Pecan Island, which has a full-time population of about 100 people in raised fishing camps along a two-lane highway, gas station clerks and grocery shop owners say everyone has a story about SpaceX coming to the community, though no one has any specifics.
“It’s all anyone is talking about,” said Vicky Harrington at Marsha’s Corner Store about 15 miles north of Pecan Island. “We’ve all heard the rumors but we don’t know who to believe.”
A view from Freshwater City Road, south of Pecan Island in Vermilion Parish, where at least one commercial space company is in talks with large landowners to purchase property.
By STEPHANIE RIEGEL | Staff writer
Fueling the speculative fire was a land sale in Pecan Island filed May 1 in the Vermilion Parish courthouse. Records show a Brownsville, Texas, resident who lists SpaceX as his employer on LinkedIn purchased a 14-acre tract along Front Ridge Road that lies just south of Pecan Island Food Store. No evidence has emerged publicly connecting the purchase to the larger negotiations. The deal had been pending since March, a source indicated.
The employee did not respond to a request for comment. The seller, Anthony Fontenot of Youngsville, said he never met the buyer and was unaware of his plans for the property.
“Maybe people are speculating already,” Fontenot said.
Several police jurors in Cameron and Vermilion parishes reached Thursday said they had not signed confidentiality agreements and were in the dark about a potential deal.
“But I hope something comes,” said Vermilion Parish Police Juror Dexter Callahan. “We need something in this part of the state to generate jobs and activity.”
Ideal location?
The potential location in Vermilion Parish could be an ideal one for SpaceX between its Brownsville, Texas, headquarters and Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to Lafayette real estate broker Jim Keaty, who has been monitoring and blogging about local developments. The company’s rockets are too large to be transported by rail and would have to be shipped by barge.
The Freshwater Bayou Lock provides direct, deep-water access to the Gulf of Mexico for SpaceX’s autonomous drone-ship recovery vessels, Keaty said. The nearby Port of Iberia has more than 100 marine fabrication yards already equipped to build launch mounts, modify barges and supply offshore-grade steel.
Keaty said the location could support activities such as manufacturing Starships, testing its Raptor engines and loading completed rockets on barges bound for Florida.
The development could also erase a large portion of hunting and fishing land that has been used for generations.
“Nobody knows how all of this is going to shake out and to what impact,” said Brennan Billeaud, whose camp is just south of Pecan Island. “We have a camp down there, and from a personal standpoint, that’s always kind of been our happy place.”
Said Billy Broussard, a one-time commissioner for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries: “Hunting has existed side-by-side with the oil and gas industry for decades now. The rumor mill has gone wild with speculation about what this could mean. The truth is we just don’t know enough to say whether this would be good or bad for Pecan Island.”
Staff writer Joel Thompson contributed to this report.