Ports of Indiana earns national REDI sites designation for Mount Vernon “Megamodal Site”

The Ports of Indiana and the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership (E-REP) today announced that the 544-acre Mount Vernon megamodal site has earned a Silver designation through REDI Sites (Readiness Evaluation for Development and Investment), the Site Selectors Guild’s first-in-the-nation site readiness program.

Situated within the Ports of Indiana-Mount Vernon in Posey County, one of the nation’s premier multimodal freight hubs on the Ohio River, the megamodal site offers size, infrastructure, and barge, rail and highway access, served by OmniTRAX rail operations and positioned in a designated foreign trade zone. Zoned entirely for industrial use, the site accommodates heavy manufacturing, energy, logistics, and advanced supply chain tenants.

REDI Sites evaluated the property across five weighted categories — Utilities, Ownership & Entitlements, Environmental, Ease of Development, and Logistics — with documentation reviewed by Terracon, an independent engineering firm, and by REDI Reviewers drawn from the Guild’s membership.

“Few sites in the country can match what Mount Vernon offers – true barge, rail and highway access anchored in a foreign trade zone,” said Jody Peacock, CEO of the Ports of Indiana. “Earning this Silver designation through REDI Sites confirms what we’ve long known: this megamodal site is ready to compete for major projects, and we’re proud to have that backed by an independent, national standard.”

E-REP pursued the REDI Sites designation in partnership with Ports of Indiana, OmniTRAX, CenterPoint Energy and other regional partners. The result is a nationally recognized, third-party-validated credential that the partners will use in proactive outreach to site selection consultants and corporate decision-makers.

“Logistics and infrastructure are critical elements of the site selection process, and REDI certification shows all prospects that Mount Vernon Megasite is completely supply chain ready,” said OmniTRAX Chief Commercial Officer Ryan Dreier. “This multimodal site is ready to power today’s global and domestic supply chains.”

Launched in 2024, REDI Sites establishes a consistent national standard for evaluating and communicating site readiness — a process that has historically varied widely across states and regions. Each REDI Sites designation reflects a site’s current position on its readiness journey and provides actionable intelligence to help communities prioritize investments that strengthen their competitive standing. The designation is valid for one year, providing an opportunity to renew and continue advancing the site’s readiness.

“Speed is an incentive, and it’s the one we can control,” said Lloyd Winnecke, President and CEO of the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership. “Five categories of due diligence on this Posey County site are documented and independently reviewed before we ever answer a request for information. Add a civilian labor force of nearly 300,000 within an hour, generations of manufacturing experience, training providers who design around a company’s production line, and an Ohio River that has powered commerce here for two centuries, and we can move at the pace a project actually requires. That’s what our partners built here.”