Mayor Eric Adams. Photo Credit: facebook.com/NYCMayor

On September 15, 2022, Mayor Eric Adams announced that the Hunts Point Produce Market was selected for a $110 million U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant. This federal funding will be used to upgrade and improve the Produce Market’s facilities, strengthening critical freight movement and improving the environment, public health, and quality of life for the Hunts Point community. (more…)

Opportunity to develop food-related or wholesale industrial use on 9.75- acre site near Fulton Fish Market. On June 2, 2011, the Economic Development Corporation issued an open request for proposals for the redevelopment of a City-owned site in Hunts Point, Bronx. The unimproved 9.75-acre parcel fronts Halleck Street and Food Center Drive, and is within the Hunts Point Distribution Center which includes the Hunts Point Produce Market, the Hunts Point Meat Market, and the New Fulton Fish Market. EDC is seeking a developer to redevelop the site into a food-related and/or wholesale industrial use pursuant to a long-term ground lease. The site is zoned M3-1, which permits heavy manufacturing uses.

According to EDC, food-related uses may include wholesale and retail components, so long as the retail use is ancillary to the wholesale use. Because the parcel is located within a designated market area under the State Agriculture and Markets Law, proposed “market-consistent” uses including the buying, selling, processing, manufacturing, and warehousing of food, flowers, or ornamental plants, would not require review under the City’s land use review process. (more…)

Competitor challenged procedures in EDC’s selection of Baldor for South Bronx lease. The New York City Economic Development Corporation issued a request for proposals for a long-term lease of two parcels across the street from the City Terminal Market at Hunts Point in the Bronx. Baldor Specialty Foods and the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative Association, among others, submitted proposals. EDC chose Baldor after deciding that it had submitted the most competitive lease package. Baldor, which offered the most rent money, would invest between $5 to $7 million in infrastructure improvements, would retain 510 employees and add another 450 within three years, and offered to sell or lease its existing facility to displaced Bronx Terminal Market wholesalers. In contrast, the Cooperative offered to combine the premises with the existing Terminal Market. This proposal would require significant reconfiguration and cost $400 million, which the Cooperative proposed should be financed by City, state and federal monies.

After EDC announced its decision to award the lease to Baldor, the Hunts Point Cooperative filed an article 78 petition, claiming that EDC conducted a sham bidding process, that its proposal was more beneficial than Baldor’s, that the RFP’s seven-day response period, instead of the usual 60-day period, showed the decision was predetermined, and that Baldor, the City and EDC had entered into a side agreement to quell the controversy over the displaced Bronx Terminal Market wholesalers. (more…)