ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

RIVER ACCESSIBILITY

Paducah is at the center of waterways linking Pittsburgh, Mobile, the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans, St. Louis and Minneapolis/St. Paul. Only New Orleans, with its ships, tugboats and petrochemical industry, has a bigger inland river presence.

With access to four navigable rivers, Paducah is considered a national hub for river transport. Worthy of such a title, the Paducah-McCracken County Riverport Authority is the only port facility that is located where four major eastern rivers converge in America’s heartland. Located at the confluence of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, the Ohio River and the Cumberland River, the Port is less than 50 miles from the Mississippi River. A premier facility, it is the only inland port that provides a direct connection from the heartland to both New Orleans and Mobile.

Paducah shares the Ohio River with Louisville, Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and the Tennessee and Cumberland River with major southern markets such as Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tennessee; and Florence and Huntsville, Alabama.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Visit Paducah Economic Development for more information.

PADUCAH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

Small Town Big Idea

Small Town Big Idea offers a simple and affordable solution to help small business owners and entrepreneurs launch or grow their business. Small Town Big Idea provides resources and consulting services that help entrepreneurs manage all aspects of their business and market effectively to their target public.

Paducah Main Street

A partnership with the City of Paducah which serves the community through economic development initiatives in Paducah’s historic downtown and the Lower Town Arts District.

Murray State University – Small Business Development Center

The mission of the Murray SBDC is to improve the economic vitality of the 24 western-most counties in Kentucky by providing high-quality, hands-on business consulting and training to both pre-venture and existing small business entrepreneurs.

Kentucky Innovation Network

The Kentucky Innovation Network can help through its network of business leaders and mentors that encourage relationships, grow companies and create jobs.

EDUCATION

Paducah and the region’s investment in the river industry stand second to none. The Riverport financed the largest flat-top crane in North America at a cost of $4.2 million to handle ocean containers. West Kentucky Community and Technical College (ranked 3rd in the national according to Aspen Institute) provides flexible customized workforce training for marine industries and offers an Associate in Applied Science degree for Logistics and Operations Management and Marine Technology programs. Murray State University, our regional university, offers a degree in Logistics and Supply Chain Management as well as a full range of business and science degrees. Seamen’s Church Institute’s Maritime Education Center provides training for mariners using some of the world’s most sophisticated computer equipment and also administers a mariner firefighting program.

Our area schools are highly ranked landing them in the top 10% K-12 grade in all of Kentucky and recently just opened a state of the art high school in McCracken County.

Highway 62 College and University Corridor
More than 12,000 students per year will be enrolled in our Highway 62 College and University Corridor.

Murray State University’s Campus
University of Kentucky’s Paducah Engineering Campus
Murray State University’s Paducah Campus
WKCTC Emerging Technology Center

In 2014, our staple of services provided training for nearly 85,000 Kentuckians in a variety of industry sectors, including manufacturing, healthcare, information technology, energy, distribution and research and development.