Jeffersonville, IN (March 30, 2022) – During a special meeting Tuesday of the River Ridge Development Authority, the RRDA approved a revised agreement with the City of Jeffersonville to provide $12 million for an expansion of the city’s North Wastewater Treatment Plant (NWWTP). The agreement was also executed Tuesday.
The new agreement will allow Jeffersonville to move forward with its planned expansion of its wastewater treatment plant – a project that will provide significant benefits for current and future businesses located within the River Ridge Commerce Center (RRCC).
“This is an important milestone for River Ridge and the City of Jeffersonville,” said River Ridge Executive Director Jerry Acy. “This expanded wastewater treatment capacity will allow us to further develop the section of the River Ridge Commerce Center that is within Jeffersonville. We’ve drawn some major employers to the city in recent years, and we still have room for more, including within our 1,100-acre megasite.”
According to a recent Economic Impact analysis independently conducted by Policy Analytics, the RRCC and its businesses contributed $235.7 million to local area labor income in 2021, including $96.6 million in labor income to citizens of Jeffersonville. Additionally, spendable income tax revenue distributed to the county and cities in Clark County, Ind., totaled $3.6 million in 2021, including $1.28 million for the City of Jeffersonville.
“The continued development of the River Ridge Commerce Center is important to all of Southern Indiana, particularly our local partners who have helped us make this a great place to do business,” Acy added. “We’re pleased that a major project like this one will allow us to bring in more employers with thousands of team members and associates who will live and work within our communities.”
The NWWTP provides wastewater treatment services to industries and businesses located in the Jeffersonville section of River Ridge as well as about 10,000 acres located outside the River Ridge Commerce Center. The expansion will also support developments of other business, including industrial, retail and residential initiatives in areas of Jeffersonville in close proximity to the RRCC.
The current plan for expansion calls for doubling the treatment capacity at the plant to approximately 6 million gallons per day. Two million gallons per day of the new capacity will be allocated for businesses within the RRCC.
River Ridge’s funding to support the treatment plant expansion would be generated by proceeds from a planned 2022 bond issue and potential land sale revenues.
###
About the River Ridge Development Authority
The River Ridge Development Authority manages the River Ridge Commerce Center, a 6,000-acre business and office park established in 1998 to replace lost economic activity from the closure of the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant. The Authority has invested more than $150 million to redevelop about 25 percent of the Center. River Ridge is home to more than 60 companies, such as Amazon, Bose, Collins Aerospace, Enjoy Life Foods, Medline, Optum and HempRise. Onsite employment totaled more than 10,500 in 2020, and the Center produced a total of $2.5 billion in economic output and supported more than 17,500 regional jobs. The investments and growth at River Ridge recently earned the RRDA the International Economic Development Council’s Gold Award for Real Estate Redevelopment and Reuse.