EDGE President, Reid Dulberger spoke to the TVA Board of Directors at their meeting in Oxford, Mississippi, on February 12th. He was there to express the continued interest of the city, county, EDGE and Port in working with TVA to redevelop the property at the former Allen Fossil Plant as a state-of-the-art marine multi-modal freight terminal for container and bulk products.

EDGE and the Port Commission are partnering with American Patriot Holdings and the Port of Plaquemines Parrish in Louisiana, to create a new multi-modal marine transportation network in the heart of America. The network would be powered by a new container vessel that could carry more freight and travel at higher speeds than anything currently in the river system. The Allen Fossil plant combined with land immediately north of the site would open up nearly 1,000 acres for the new terminal.

A new multi-modal freight terminal at the Port would attract related manufacturing and assembly operations, as well as additional warehouse and distribution firms to the area. The impact on the local economy would be substantial.

The Port of Memphis is the nation’s 5th largest inland port by tonnage and has direct access to 5 Class I railroads. A recent analysis showed the Port directly supports more than 9,000 jobs and has an annual economic impact of $9.3 billion.