60 Business View - October 2015
much longer history of development than the other Ports
do, because it’s older and it’s in a very heavy industrial
area. It only has roughly 85 acres left for development.
But it has one the most prized pieces of real estate in all
the Great Lakes. We have a 57-acre plot of land that we
purchased from a steel company that wasn’t using it - on
a working dock, and within the harbor. So, we’re talking
over a thousand feet of dock, and a beach with a view of
downtown Chicago. All of our ships can access this dock,
so it really is a prize piece of maritime, industrial, real
estate that we think will present some tremendous op-
portunities for companies looking to expand their busi-
ness or maybe even launch new shipping ventures on
the Great Lakes.
“Both river Ports are a newer and less developed. Jef-
fersonville has 28 companies at this time, but it is one
of the fastest growing markets anywhere on the inland
waterway system. What’s really exciting is that a new In-
terstate – a bypass around Louisville - is being built to go
over the Ohio River within two miles from this Port. It will
have a major impact because the Port will be Exit #1 in
Indiana, when it opens. And so, to put it in logistics terms,
Atlanta just got thirty minutes closer; Frankfurt, Cincin-
nati, the south side of Louisville – all these destinations
just got thirty to forty-five minutes closer to the Port. And
it’s going to allow all the Port’s truck traffic to avoid down-
town Louisville, when it goes southwest and east. We’ve
got businesses at the Port that are absolutely thrilled
about this.
“We’ve also got about 350 acres of land available for de-
velopment that we are getting inquiries on, weekly, from
companies looking to set up a new business at the heart
of this new Interstate connection. It’s a tremendous area
for future population, workforce, and economic growth.
We’re also connecting the Port to one of the largest in-
dustrial complexes in the Midwest: the River Ridge Com-
merce Center is a few miles away. It has 6,000 acres
available for development, and it does not have water-
front access. So, we’re building a heavy-haul corridor, for
both road and rail, between the Port and this industrial
park in order to provide any future development there
with access to the Ohio River. It’s a multi-party partner-
ship with the state, the local communities, the River
Ridge Commerce Center, and the Ports.”
“Mount Vernon is a small town in Southwest Indiana.
You never would have thought that this Port is of national
significance, but it handles more cargo than our other
two ports, combined. That’s because it handles a huge
volume of coal and agricultural products. It also has an
ethanol plant, which is one of the largest in the Midwest,
run by Valero – the tenth largest company in the U.S. This
was their first ethanol port on a river terminal anywhere
LOGISTICS
