Branding the Economic Advantages of Southern Indiana

I hear sometimes folks say, oh, let's do anything we can to win. I hear the other side of that saying, hey, why can't we have a, you know, shared incentives when the reality is that there are two states, there are multiple counties, there are multiple mayors, there are different taxing districts. Right? There's certain things that you can massage or try to mitigate, but at the end of the day, you've got to recognize that they're there.

That's the voice of John Launius, chief economic development officer with one Southern Indiana. In our final episode of this season, he joins us to talk about this thriving region in the Louisville area. He talks us through how they've developed their own branding, some of their many big recent wins, and how regional approaches benefit everyone and way more. But before we get into this episode, a quick word from our sponsor, Edo Marketplace, your one stop shop for economic development.

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Find out more@edomarketplace.net and with that, let's jump in. Welcome, John, officially, to Inside America's Best Cities. We are so excited to have you.

I know we're going to be talking about several different wins you've seen in your region, some of the great stuff going on there, and hopefully some things our listeners will be able to pull some advice, ideas and tips from. So can you kick us off by just talking a little bit about your region, kind of where you're at, what that encompasses, and some recent wins that you're proud of and that we can delve more into? Yeah. Well again, Manna, thanks so much for the opportunity to share a little bit of Southern Indiana's story.

And when I say Southern Indiana, I'm talking about the Louisville Metropolitan Statistical Area. We are a bi state community, as you'll kind of hear from. I think some of the projects and the things I'd like to highlight today, it's really that story of two tales of being a part of a city known for a city that you're not in. A state that you're not in can have some marketing challenges, to be frank, but it's also our greatest asset in terms of workforce availability, complementary quality of life dynamics, housing opportunities.

It really is a wonderful partnership, but you've got to really kind of look at it from some different perspectives. And that's something that I think is on the job of the economic developers. So we've got to do a better job of articulating that, not only locally, but externally as well. So, again, I appreciate the opportunity to get to do that.

Yeah, you're so right. I know that's something we've been seeing more of in recent years, is that regional approach. So would love to have you talk more about, about that. And is that really a newer approach in your region or just something you're kind of revisiting?

Tell us, tell us the things. Yeah, well, you know, again, starting off on that same premise of kind of being known culturally and geographically for another community being Louisville, Kentucky, but also when you look at Indiana being two hours south of Indianapolis. Right. I sometimes say we've had to do.

We've been regional since before it was cool. Yeah. And when you look at how we're structured organizationally, when you look at the partnerships that exist from county to county within Indiana, but also that matriculate clearly onto the other side of the bridge, I say that a little tongue in cheek, but I can show you a lot of really grassroots examples that have, I think, been a part of our development and our continued kind of momentum, much like economic development. I say it's not something you arrive at, it's something that you're constantly getting footing in and kind of building off of.

And I think regionalism is the same way. Right. It's, it's, it's a muscle, not, not an achievement. And so I think the more that you lean into it, the bigger, the cooler.

Right. The more impactful things that you can do when you start to function and build that muscle. Right. So I mentioned earlier, so I'm based in Chattanooga and I formerly worked with our chamber, combined Chamber and edo.

And interestingly, because I want to get your perspective on this, but our little region that we look at, well, I shouldn't say little, but actually crosses three different state lines. So it's a little bit of 10, most in Tennessee, but a little bit in Georgia, a little bit in Alabama, 16 counties in total. And similar to what you were saying, like, Chattanooga is sort of the biggest name that would be probably the most well known way outside of our, of our region. And just looking at how to, you know, address that and look at how you're branding it.

But I do feel like that involving different states is even another aspect of looking at this. So how, how does that impact your approach? Or do you Feel like it does. But the fact that there's a, there's technically a state line in between you two.

Yeah, no, it is my work. You know, I, I think you have to first acknowledge the reality of the situation. I hear sometimes folks say, oh, let's, let's win, let's do anything we can to win. I hear the other side of that saying, hey, why can't we all just get along?

Why can't we have a, you know, shared incentives and all of these? And, and I, you know, I, I think those are aspirational and I think some of them are short sighted. Right. But when the reality is that there are two states, there are multiple counties, there are multiple mayors, there are different taxing districts.

Right. There's certain things that you can massage or try to mitigate and some of those tools or functions, but at the end of the day, you've gotta recognize that they're there. And whether it's the opportunity that it provides or the barrier that it provides, your role in trying to drive investment in your market is really around being played, the hand that you're dealt a little bit and kind of furthering that along. But I think one of the first things is just recognizing where you are, what those jurisdictional constraints are and where then might you be able to influence those or build countering kind of opportunities or stories or narrative around that.

And it's interesting too because like for just, you know, people living in the community, I think they've looked at that as a benefit for a long time. Right. Having access to all these different great areas. So it's kind of just extending that idea.

Yeah, 100%. You know, I sometimes look to our commuter patterns as maybe one of the truest examples of, you know, it's a little harder to calculate where people are necessarily dining and doing other social. But we know where people are living, we know where people are working. And when you look at our bi state commuter patterns, a lot of folks, even the folks that live here, particularly the folks that live here, I think are sometimes a little shocked whenever, when we know that 50,000 of our neighbors live in a different community than they work in.

Right. And so when you think about that type of commuter pattern across that state border. Right. It starts to obviously impact our ability to be able to successfully position companies that want to expand their operations here or locate a new manufacturing facility that might need a thousand workers or 2,000 or 5,000 workers.

Right. So that opportunity to share that talent pool is why we're having the history of success. But Also, what's leading to the opportunities that we're driving for today. Right.

Because those benefits don't stop at a line you would see on a map, right. Like it's not like, oh, no benefits over the line. That's it. Well, it might be a taxing jurisdiction.

And I think that's where I go back to the reality of the situation, which is there are different taxing liabilities and benefits associated with where those employees live and work. Right. Or where they reside, where they predominantly spend their dollars. Right.

And those things are more difficult to be influenced by economic developers and even one community particularly. So it's how do you create tools and soften that by state dynamic and how do you even oversell and over complement that with a value proposition like the Four Door? And I know we'll get into that here in a little bit, but how do you. How do you offer so much undeniable benefit that it mitigates some of those other dynamics?

But again, being a part of a region with nearly a million, 1.5 million workforce, that gets you on some cool lists to go after some really impactful projects. So it behooves all of us to sing that same kind of story and song and position ourselves for the projects that we want. Right.

And that is actually my next question. So the four Ador I know is how you're branding some of what we're talking about. So tell us more about that. I know you've got the.

The four Rs thing, which is kind of where that name comes from, I assume. So tell us about that brand. Yeah. So the Four Door is something that one Southern Indiana in partnership with Duke Energy created several years ago, kind of had it, honestly, as a passive asset that I think we used in our pitches and, you know, in some of our verbal conversations.

But we never really kind of leveraged it, I think, as the asset that we want it to be or that we think it can be. So over the past year or so, we've had some more conversations with our partners about that relationship with Louisville. And again, the undeniable benefits and authenticity, to be frank, that comes from the Kentucky Derby. Right.

The horse racing industry as a whole. Right. It's so authentic and charming and attractive to different demographics, to be frank. And a couple on top of that Louisville Slugger and the Bats and then the bourbon industry.

Right. Not only is it cool and delicious, it's also manufacturing, it's logistics, it's agriculture. It's such a representation of our economy. However, they seem to be more cultural Authentic references that are charming but sometimes don't matriculate into what's that business proposition of your region?

That's something that I've thought about throughout my career in economic development, but have been in a little better position to try to elevate this four door brand. Feeling like it, it might fit that need not to give up on the bourbon and horse racing. Those are all things that we'll continue to celebrate. But at the same time being a part of a city that you're not and in a state, I think we were searching for a more balanced branding that also had transferability into some of the core sectors that we're looking to capitalize on which require that four door infrastructure.

And so the four door is termed off of the word corridor. The four Rs in the four door are represented by the rivers, rails, roads and runways. And again, prior to maybe leaning into the four door as much, I used to sometimes refer to us as the Wall street of logistics. Right, I like that too.

Trying to recognize the difficulty in geographically kind of moving these both natural assets. But now the built environment like ups like the public inland port systems and the rail connectivity and these things can't be relocated right. Or moved. And so how do you articulate that complex value proposition?

Maybe a little marketing, a little luck, a little blood, sweat and tears and shameless promotions. But we feel like the four door is a brand that our bi state community can get behind that leverages everything from pharmaceutical to raw mineral processing to just, just a plethora of the targeted industries that have that logistics advantage that we can offer. Well, and I really like that it's a brand that leans firstly on what, you know, these companies that you're working to recruit are going to be thinking about.

And so we know of course quality of life is really part of that narrative and is also really important. But I also think for a lot of business decision making, like the practicality things are what they're going to look at first and then those quality of life things that are awesome can be some breakers, like they're cool. But I, I think that's a little bit unique with what you're doing. From what I've seen, in a good way, not that it's bad to lean on quality of life, but some of those brands heavily lean into that maybe I don't know more than I.

It's a balance. Well, I mean, so you know, I grew up in southeast Missouri, near the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi, went to college in Cape Girardeau on The Mississippi. I've got this love for river cities already. I think they bring so much charm and culture and vibrancy and unique kind of perspectives in terms of kind of landscapes.

And so I think it is such a quality of life advantage. And I think when you start looking at these pillars, you start thinking about those quality of life advantages are also built around these rivers, rails, roads and runways and whether that's the Falls of the Ohio or the Steamboat Museum, but also that highway in logistics connectivity to. We were talking right before we hopped on being able to be in Nashville and two and two and a half hours. Right.

To be in Indianapolis or Chicago. Right. In four to five hours, like St. Louis in four hours.

You know, you've got a regional connectivity that absolutely is a business advantage, but it's also a quality of life advantage. Right. When you're whether an individual and you know, with no kids wanting to travel or whether you do have that family and are needing those opportunities. So we like how it's a business advantage, but it also really nicely marries with I think some of the quality of life advantages that, that we're known for.

I agree and I think you put that perfectly and we know that it is a big advantage. Thinking about talent, you know, they want to be close. Maybe they don't want to live in those larger metro areas for a variety of reasons. Right.

They're a lot more expensive, they can be cool, but also pain in a lot of ways to actually live in day to day. But that people do like having pretty easy access to be able to visit those places for the weekend or for any amenities, you know, that are more focused in larger metros. So that's a great advantage to have. And those needs can even evolve a little bit.

You know, I moved here from a small town, moved into, you know, Louisville, into the Highlands, the kind of the quirky cultural arts area there. Loved it. It was everything that my small town of 800 was not. But as I got married and had a child and I started thinking about, you know, what those needs and wants of, of of my next chapter are.

I married into southern Indiana. I think being from a small town, it met a lot of those needs that I had as a, a young parent and a new dad, but also benefiting from this larger metro area while having, you know, different neighborhood setting, different school. School options. So it's, it's, it's not either or, it's both and.

Right. So we kind of already covered this question, you know, what do you feel like really makes you all stand Out. I feel like we kind of covered that. But if there's anything else you want to add or you can go ahead and move into kind of more of the talent piece.

What's going on to attract folks. Yeah, well, you know, if anybody that's ever kind of talked to me for a few minutes always hears me say the person doing the least amount of economic development has their title. So I just want to recognize that from the realtors to the construction partners, the engineers, the finance, I mean you have folks that are representing this region in, in, in transactions and engagements on a, on a regular basis. And so I, when I look at economic development, the communities that are winning and thriving, I'm oversimplifying, but you know, are they, are they having industry success?

Right. Are they, are they expanding companies and locating new ones? Are they having housing growth? Are they developing?

Because likely population growth. Right. And those things, it starts soft indicators and then the third is around the quality of life. Right.

The community furniture. Right. What are they doing? Is your community investing and growing in those areas?

And I think that's the thing that I get most excited about is we are one of those few communities. When you look nationally in terms of an expansion mode from a industry growth perspective, we are among the, I believe 15 in the country that are in expansion mode right now as a state. When you look at our region, we've got unprecedented building permits for kind of residential and multifamily housing units. Clark county here within our region in southern Indiana is among the fastest growing in our region in the state at just over 15% since the last 2010 census.

We've got two, I would say, generational parks projects kind of, you know, going on. Origin park is nearly 400 acres, right. Nestled on the shoreline between Jeffersonville and New Albany, right. In Clarksville area.

It's going to have elevated walking paths kind of recognizing the volatility of the Ohio River. It'll have full year access at full development, it'll have white water rafting opportunities. So again, I'm just excited because we've got this industrial growth that's happening, we've got housing mixed use development happening. And then also the elected local leadership over the past decade plus have been really kind of building and now delayed development has its benefits.

Right. And southern Indiana has a maturity that can happen to it that will really complement our bi state region. So again, it's not about one winning or losing. It's about really fully maturing what we know to be our bi state region.

Yeah. About everybody winning. What is the biggest challenge you feel like you're still facing as a region? I think it is still, again, our biggest challenge is our biggest opportunity.

And I think it is around how we work together as a bi state, but also as other counties within even Indiana. It's definitely a priority of Governor Braun and the administration and the state of Indiana. They're making some kind of policy moves to better align, I think counties into multi county regions, again recognizing their scarce resources, but also recognizing we all have complementary assets and opportunities. Right.

One community's got housing, the next one's got developable acreage for a plant. Right. So it's really, how are you looking at these opportunities more regionally? And I think that's a good thing.

I'm not going to say it's going to be without some pain because change can be hard. But like I said, we've been really embracing regionalism for a long time. I think that in terms of the bi state community, we're a part of several regional kind of entities. Some of them are in iteration right now.

We've been pretty stabilized as one southern Indiana for many years. Some of the other counterparts on the other side of the river, same faces. And we continue to engage with them, but they are kind of going through an iteration, some restructuring, but we continue to partner with them. We just hosted a number of site consultants at Bourbon and Beyond, which is a national music festival with a lot of great artists that we collaborate to bring, bring folks in all the time.

But like I said, it's a muscle. And particularly during times of change, you've got to be really intentional about keeping those traditions of bi state partnership and some of the courtesies that we offer each other strong so that they can kind of withstand any, any transitions. Yeah. As we head into the new year in 2026, thinking about you and other economic developers, you know, people kind of looking at some of the same goals you are.

What do you think are some things to expect or be prepared to face, particularly in the next year? Yeah, you know, I think a lot about the complexity of projects. You know, I don't claim to have been in this industry for nearly as long as the folks that have kind of mentored and charted paths before me. But you know, in the 10 plus years that I've been, it's been, you know, call centers.

Right. And data centers. And now we're Starting to hear SMRs, right. Nuclear and you know, there's a lot of solar appetite kind of.

But that has to be balanced with local interest in those projects. Local Education around that technology, the maturity of that technology by the industry. And so I definitely am seeing projects getting a little more complex and I think that takes a different engagement strategy with local elected officials and with the general public as a whole. To one we don't want.

Nobody wants to waste our time on things that the community doesn't want. Right. So how are you proactively better understanding what your community wants, needs, can tolerate. Not to use that in kind of that but you know, what's the appetite for some of these projects and then what's our role as economic developers to help further that conversation or understand where the nos kind of come from and being a partner to get the community in a spot where we know what we want and what we should be responding to and spending our time and energy trying to recruit into the regions.

I think that'll be a growing trend with innovation and technology. And I don't think data centers are going away. So I just think the complexity of projects. Yeah.

Continue. That's really interesting. And yeah. Especially yeah.

Moving into the data centers which I know a lot of communities want to recruit and are working to recruit but then I think a lot of people don't like fully understand them and I know they also take a lot of resources and just looking at that from all sides because I know you all have a big. Which I know we haven't mentioned yet but Meta. Right. And bringing in a thank you.

Thrilled to welcome Meta to town with the Jeffersonville Data Center. Yeah, thank you. I think like anything there are good actors and bad actors. Right.

Not all cars are the same, not all data centers are the same. And we evaluate projects for goodness of fit, impact, opportunity. What is the benefit back to the community again, those are roles of hopefully good economic developers out there really assessing projects and providing that level of information and detail to the stakeholders, elected leadership so that they can make the best decision. Right.

Ultimately it's not economic developers saying yes, no or even winning projects. It's really convening all those partners, from utility partners to development partners to mayors elected leadership and trying to position them with the best information to make the best decision that they can for their constituents. And yeah. And meta.

Right. And that data center is unique. Right. In terms of the self contained water systems and it's the leader in terms of innovation and are excited to welcome them to the community.

Yeah. It looks like they've already engaging in some cool ways and that's awesome. Yeah. They've got local grant making that's occurring.

We're partnering with them Regularly on even small business tools that can be used through their platform. For our chamber members, they're investing in kind of local STEM education programs at our area high schools. The walls are up. The racking is starting to move in.

I was over there just last week for a hardhat tour and yeah, they'll be kicking it on live in early 2026. Already starting the hiring and yeah, just excited to see them hit the community before even, you know, operating and having the level of intentionality that they are. Right. That must be cool for you because I know in this field a lot of projects can take a really long time to like years to fully, you know, take big steps and come into fruition.

So that must be neat days when you get to be like, all right. Yeah, it is 100%. Yeah. Feeling like you had even some small role in something that will then employ your neighbors.

And then you start hearing about folks that they're hiring and programs and trying to help again with our members building connectivity to those assets. Right. So that they can, whether it's bidding on projects or getting kids that are matriculating through school job opportunities. Definitely the best part of the business is seeing it five years after the press release.

Yeah, that's so funny. Well, we always close with a fun wrap up question. But before we get to that, anything else you'd like to add that we didn't cover that you'd like to share? Yeah, no, just again, maybe that shameless plug that I mentioned earlier.

Again, we're one Southern Indiana Chamber and Economic Development. We operate in Clark, Floyd and Scott county within the Louisville msa but are really leaning into this new bi state brand, the Four Door. And you can Google that or just go to four door.com and learn a little bit more about the resources and the assets that really drive a lot of that logistics advantage that we highlighted.

Well, we will definitely link that up in the show notes for folks to find easily. Fun question is, if someone were visiting your region, your area for the first time, what would be like a bucket list thing you would say they should be sure to do? Can I do two? So one is just again, kind of going back to just, you know, the roots and the history of our entire region is really based around the Falls of the Ohio in that section of the Ohio being unnavigable before they put in the locks and allow for the commerce to translate through.

So the Falls of the Ohio is a state park that is right on the shoreline. The most beautiful majestic views back of the Louisville, Kentucky skyline. But what you will get to literally hundreds of acres that you can just walk on. I hope I don't get this wrong.

300 million plus year old Devonian fossil beds. I mean people travel from all over the world to get to. It's the largest exposed asset in the world in terms of the Devonian fossil bed. And you can't take anything with you that's a federal offense.

But you can matriculate around it. You can bring kids like to bring sheets of paper and kind of highlight over the fossils. But they've got a great interpretive center that talks about the history and learning about the dinosaurs and the woolly mammoths and different things that used to inhabit our region is pretty unique, I would say. And then I was like to, you know, we're on the four door.

Yeah. But we're still a bourbon area. I'm still going to plug that. And Starlight Distillery also Huber's Winery is just a local treasure, you know, 15 or 20 minutes kind of out of, kind of the downtown area, but a fifth generation family farm.

They just got named Bourbon of the year through Starlight Distillery. But they've got a wonderful wine selection but also an awesome spirits collection. But you can spend a full day there from with the kids and a playground to obviously grocery stores, ice cream shops. But we're season pass holders.

We're there about every weekend and and just love it. So neat. Well, thank you so much, John. This is our final interview of the season.

So I think it was a great wrap up and everyone will get a lot out of it. Thank you for taking the time. Awesome. Well, thank you again and maybe a final plug for you guys and livability.

You guys have been an incredible partnership. Jared and I have known each other for several years in different roles and I've been here in this role for about three and a half years and he was one of the first calls because I just knew about the program and what we could do in partnership and it has been such a successful way for us to be able to tell our story nationally and even internationally in a way that to be frank, a small, smaller kind of mid market community, it's a little more difficult to do so to have opportunities like this even.

We're just really eternally grateful for and appreciate the partnership with Luba Belli. Well, we love hearing that. I did not ask for this testimonial so we'll have to bump that up closer to the top of the episode. Thank you so much.

Great. Thanks Amanda. Thanks for listening to the livability podcast where we take you inside America's best cities. At Livability, we highlight the unsung awesomeness of small and mid sized cities across the country.

We also partner with communities to reach their target companies and potential residents through digital content and print magazine programs. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, rate and review this show wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also learn more about us@livabilitymedia.com have an idea for an upcoming episode?

Email me@alsivability.com until next time. From Livability, I'm Amanda Ellis sharing the stories of America's most promising places. SA.