G-Unit insiders pull back the curtain on 50 Cent’s vision

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS)—After negotiating with local and state officials, the G-Unit team is laying out a long-term plan for a future in Shreveport that includes TV and film production, real estate development, and home-grown talent.

Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson has solidified leasing agreements for Millennium Studios and Stageworks and purchased nearly two dozen properties across Shreveport. G-Unit Growth Advisor Orville Hall and Gerod Durden, CEO and broker at Durden Property Group, also the broker behind Jackson’s growing portfolio in Shreveport, pull the curtain back on what has been done and what’s to come.

“The timeline is now,” Hall said. “We never stopped. The deal is a 45-year deal: 30 years with a 15-year extension. The mayor’s office, the state, Curtis and his team, all of us.”

When Jackson visited Shreveport over two years ago, Durden said Jackson’s vision never slowed down behind the scenes.

“He just completed the lease just now,” said Durden. “That was a two-year process, but the properties, we talk often, the whole team.”

“Now he is the leader in owning the most properties in Shreveport—is that, is that—can we confirm that?” said Ya’Lisha Gatewood.

“From what I’ve seen, a private property owner, I’ve been told by several sources that yes—he is.” said Durden. “We’re well over we’re on the range of 20 properties and you know we we just this week we’ve secured some properties so this week so and that’s that’s the process that’s been a 6 month process just to get us to where we are today with these properties.”

With ownership of that magnitude comes responsibility. Contractors are already in place, and work is underway across several of the already purchased buildings.

“Some of these buildings, I’m working with contractors right now, you know, they were the guys, inspections, we’re working on that as of today,” said Durden.

Hall says Jackson already has boots on the ground.

“People worked on the dome, worked on—so it’s already started. Like, it’s already started, right?” said Hall.

From investments, then comes employment. 50 Cent insisted on putting locals first.

“But he made sure that we went to the local people first,” said Durden.

So people that already knew the city, knew the workings behind it—hired local talent right here in Shreveport,” Said Ya’Lisha Gatewood.

Hall believes the public deserves to know every detail behind the project because it is part of a bigger, strategic plan, which helps to leverage more support from the state.

“What 50 is really doing is he has graciously let me and the city, well me and the city and the mayor and the city council, use him as leverage to say to the state: he started. Would you contribute to Shreveport, to north Louisiana?” said Hall.