The corporate offices of U. L. Coleman Companies are located in Shreveport, Louisiana, which is centrally located for the southern region served by the companies. The sister cities of Shreveport and Bossier City are separated by the Red River, with Bossier City to the east and Shreveport to the west. The cities trace their history back over 150 years when this area was once a natural stopping point for steamboats transporting cotton up and down the Red River. Located in the northwest corner of Louisiana, with Arkansas 30 miles to the north and Texas 15 miles to the west, the Shreveport-Bossier area is a combination of rolling hills and Red River bottomlands.

With Shreveport and Bossier City stretching along opposite banks of the Red River, the cities have grown through the years to become a joint metropolitan area of more than 350,000 residents. Shreveport-Bossier is an area of tremendous cultural activity, with pride in its heritage, music, arts, theatre, sports and outdoor recreation, thoroughbred racing, festivals, cuisine, lifestyle, mild climate, and natural beauty. Popular attractions include Sci-Port Discovery Center for children, an IMAX dome theater, The American Rose Center (the largest rose garden in North America), and the downtown Festival Plaza – the site for jazz and blues festivals, a crawfish festival, Holiday in Dixie and Mardi Gras events, and the Red River Revel. The Shreveport-Bossier area is reported to be the fastest-growing tourism market in the state, with Louisiana leading the nation in tourism growth. Annually, 6 to 8 million people visit the Shreveport-Bossier City area, making this area the center of cultural activity for northwest Louisiana, southwest Arkansas, and east Texas, known as the Ark-La-Tex.

The gaming industry has had a significant economic impact on the Shreveport-Bossier area. According to statistics taken from a study prepared for the Louisiana Office of Tourism by the Research Department of the Travel Industry Association, domestic travel to the area generated expenditures of approximately $794.5 million in 2006, second only to New Orleans. In addition, the direct local impact of tourism produced approximately $54.4 million in state and local tax revenues and created over 11,000 jobs, a significant portion of which was generated by visitors to the area’s five casinos.

Historically, the area has thrived because of its active river port, rail network, oil and gas industry, agricultural crops such as cotton and timber, and an abundance of recreational lakes. Manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, tourism, agriculture, educational institutions, medical facilities, service industries, and oil and gas exploration and production have been vitally important to the Shreveport-Bossier economy. Today, the area has moved away from its dependence on oil and gas and is prepared to meet the challenges of the future with a progressive business attitude and diversification into other areas of production and distribution of goods and services.

Designated as a Customs Port of Entry and Foreign Trade Zone, the Shreveport-Bossier area offers advantages for importing, exporting, and transacting international business. Numerous institutions of higher education, hospitals, nursing homes, and a growing health care industry are represented in the area. Christus-Schumpert Health System and Willis-Knighton have in recent years undergone multimillion dollar expansion projects. LSU Medical Center is one of the largest teaching hospitals in the South. The Virginia K. Shehee Biomedical Research Institute is a 10-story, 160,000 square foot, $37 million regional research facility located adjacent to the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in Shreveport. Opened in 1994, the Institute’s 56 state of the art wet labs are occupied by more than 200 scientists, technologists, and support personnel from LSU School of Medicine working to find cures for such diseases as stroke, cancer, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s. This regional medical center/bio-med research center has a huge impact on the area’s economy.

The area is home to one of the largest air bases in the United States, Barksdale Air Force Base. Barksdale is headquarters for the Eighth Air Force and the 2nd Wing, an employer of nearly 9,000 military, reserve, and civilian personnel, with one of the largest Air Force retirement communities in the United States. The base has an economic impact on the area of almost $500 million, according to the GSCC. Barksdale Air Force Base has been selected as the provisional home for the new Air Force Cyber Command (AFCYBER) Center. As this mission becomes more defined, it is anticipated that more personnel will be relocating to the Bossier City-Shreveport area. North Louisiana has taken the next big step toward entering the world’s newest economic frontier with the Phase One groundbreaking of a new Cyber Innovation Center (CIC) and National Cyber Research Park (NCRP) in Bossier City to bring together academia, defense contractors, research, and technology to assist the Department of Defense on this new Cyber Command project.

Recent growth in the Shreveport-Bossier area has prompted new commercial construction projects, particularly in the southeast Shreveport and north Bossier regions, and along the Bossier side of the Red River. Downtown Shreveport now features an $85 million state-of-the-art Convention Center, including 300,000 total square feet of convention space and a Hilton hotel property. In addition, the Shreveport-Bossier area has seen tremendous economic growth since the film industry discovered the area and christened it the new “Hollywood South” creating significant economic impact on the area’s economy.