Wise allocations of public capital

Why does one city need to dedicate public money and tax privileges to two different golf arcades three miles apart from one another? Well, it's kind of an accident. Or a series of accidents. Not well-intentioned accidents, mind you. These are the kind of accidents that happen when all of your policymakers begin with the assumption that the only lever available to anyone in government is the one that gives nice things to the already wealthy. 

Xiao, a Denham Springs-based businessman whose interests include Airborne Extreme trampoline parks in Louisiana, has been working on the Five O Four project since he purchased it from developer Joe Jaeger in late 2022.

Jaeger and his partners bought the site, the former home of The Times-Picayune, in 2016 for $3.5 million. Originally, he had a deal with Topgolf to build an outlet there. In 2017, after Topgolf pulled out, he struck a deal with rival chain Drive Shack to build one of their facilities.

In 2019, a decision by the Convention Center board to quietly propose a Topgolf on the land they controlled prompted an angry response from Jaeger and questions about why the state-sponsored facility would try to compete with a private development nearby.

Then-Gov. John Bel Edwards said it didn't make sense for two such similar outlets so near together and the Topgolf project appeared to be dead. But the pandemic slowed — and eventually scuttled — Jaeger's plans at the Howard Avenue site until Xiao stepped in with Five O Fore.

Xiao has subsidy deals both from reduced local property taxes and from a deal to recoup an additional 2% sales tax to pay for part of its development costs.

The Topgolf project was revived last year by the Convention Center. Topgolf will pay for the development costs itself and will sublet the land from RDNI, which is a long-term tenant of the convention center on that plot.

Topgolf is not seeking any direct taxpayer subsidy, though it is within the River District economic development district, which means it would raise an incremental 2% sales tax that can be used for River District development costs.

The article could have also mentioned the separate $21 million tax break doled out to Shell as part of that same River District scheme.  But try not to think about that right now. 

Anyway one of the golf arcades is suing the other one now over "unfair trade practices." That's pretty rich considering how both of these businesses got here in the first place.