Duke Energy's Taylorsville Site Sits Beside One Company's Campus

Briefing note

Duke Energy Indiana announced on September 29, 2026 that it selected three properties, the Taylorsville Industrial Site in Bartholomew County, the I-74 St. Leon Alig Site in Dearborn County, and an 87-acre parcel at 3100 W. Fullerton Pike in Bloomington (Monroe County), for its 2026 Site Readiness Program. Duke works with Banning Engineering and Site Selection Group to prepare and market the sites nationally, and President Stan Pinegar said the goal is to give communities 'competitive, development-ready sites' ahead of tenant demand; none of the three has a confirmed project attached yet.

Impact

Duke's 13-year-old program (53 sites prepped, 32 wins, $15 billion recruited) is no longer the only utility running this playbook: Indiana Michigan Power launched its own 'Future Ready Sites Accelerator' this year with a different site-selection vendor, vetting five competing sites in DeKalb County, Muncie, and South Bend, while NIPSCO has instead routed large-load customers through a separate GenCo structure rather than compete on site marketing. That means Indiana's industrial land supply is now actively being fought over by rival utilities, not just rival communities.

Watch

Whether any of the three 2026 sites converts to a named tenant (historically about 60% of Duke-prepared sites eventually do) and how I&M's competing five-site cohort performs in the same recruiting cycle.

Briefing note

Duke Energy's Taylorsville Industrial Site designation covers three parcels (21.5 to 68 acres) owned by Force Holdings LLC and Palladin LLC near U.S. 31 and I-65, adjacent to the recently opened Grillo's Pickles plant and a future King's Hawaiian bakery, marketed in partnership with the Greater Columbus Economic Development Corporation's Maclyn Benedict. Duke frames this as an organic food-manufacturing cluster forming along the corridor between Columbus and Indianapolis.

Impact

What's not stated plainly: Grillo's Pickles and King's Hawaiian are both subsidiaries of the same parent, Irresistible Foods Group, meaning this 'cluster' is functionally a single company's campus, and IFG has publicly signaled optionality to add more of its own brands (Shaka Tea, Innovation Bakers) on adjacent land, which could make Duke's 'open market' marketing moot if IFG claims the newly readied parcels itself. Separately, King's Hawaiian's reported wage near $30/hour sets a de facto floor that any other incoming tenant, or any other Bartholomew County employer competing for the same rural workforce, will have to match or beat.

Watch

Whether Irresistible Foods Group itself (rather than an outside tenant) moves to claim the Force Holdings/Palladin parcels for an additional brand before the site reaches open market.