Riverfront plan for southwest Indiana to be unveiled
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Officials in southwest Indiana are set to unveil a plan to take advantage of space along the Ohio River to create an enhanced quality of place and potentially serve as a means of talent attraction.
The Evansville Regional Economic Partnership, along with Boston-based design firm Sasaki, will unveil the Ohio River Vision and Strategic Plan on Tuesday night at an event in Evansville.
The plan is expected to focus on a 50-mile stretch of the Ohio River, from Mount Vernon to Evansville and further east to Newburgh.
In a January interview on Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick, E-REP CEO—and former Evansville Mayor—Lloyd Winnecke says officials in the past didn’t know how to fully take advantage of the riverfront in southwest Indiana.
“We were able to engage some of our READI 1.0 funding to engage Sasaki, which is a world class planner and architectural firm to help us figure out how we can really activate the Ohio River but not just in downtown Evansville; we really are looking at this from a regional perspective,” he said.
The former three-term mayor said the region will have the opportunity to create development opportunities over the next two decades that haven’t been seen before.
“I foresee mixed use developments along the riverfront in downtown Evansville. I see the traffic patterns in downtown Evansville along Riverside Drive changing, perhaps, dramatically,” he said. “We’re looking at how Newburgh can be a greater Ohio River destination spot, how Mount Vernon can activate theirs, and then connect that 50-mile span.”
Being a quality of place initiative, the efforts along the riverfront will be key to talent attraction, Winnecke said. He noted as companies are looking to expand or relocate, quality of place are big concerns.
“We’re going to roll out their their concepts, based on what [Sasaki has] heard,” Winnecke told IIB last month at IBJ Media’s Engage Southwest Indiana event. “They’ve gotten input from thousands of residents in this region about what they’d like to see in our downtowns. I’ve seen a few sneak peeks; I will tell you, they are off the charts transformative.”
We’ll have details on the Ohio River Vision and Strategic Plan in Wednesday’s INside Edge Morning Briefing newsletter.