FreshDirect to finally break ground in South Bronx
The online grocer breaks ground Monday on its 500,000-square-foot campus in Mott Haven, planning to ultimately add 1,000 jobs to its New York City operations.
After years of delays, lawsuits and other snags, FreshDirect is officially ready to deliver itself to the South Bronx.
On Monday morning, the online grocer will break ground on its 500,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in the Mott Haven section of the borough. Operations for the 12-year-old company are currently run out of Long Island City, Queens.
"A lot of people talk about the production and distribution, but this is really going to be a campus that will bring together technologists, food researchers and everyone else," said FreshDirect CEO Jason Ackerman. "What makes it so exciting for us is that we're finally pulling everyone into one space."
Mr. Ackerman's excitement about digging shovels—even ceremonial ones—into Bronx soil is understandable. His company's relocation plan has been fraught with controversy from the beginning. After the company threatened to move to New Jersey, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg cut a deal with FreshDirect in 2012 to move it to the Bronx, keeping its 3,000 jobs in the city and creating 1,000 new ones. In exchange, the city and state will offer subsidies that could surpass $130 million, depending in part on how much FreshDirect spends on its project.
That deal was met with withering criticism from local groups that alleged corporate welfare and environmental malfeasance. Lawsuits filed by a group called South Bronx Unite have not been successful. Other groups supported by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito have also failed to derail the deal. Mayor Bill de Blasio, who vocally disapproved of the subsidies given to FreshDirect during his 2013 campaign, has been mum on the move since taking office. Neither he nor Ms. Mark-Viverito is expected to attend Monday's event, although protesters from South Bronx Unite and other organizations will.
Mr. Ackerman told Crain's he was "not at all concerned," about the possibility that South Bronx Unite might attempt to protest the groundbreaking. On the subject of local political support, his tone was abrupt. "We're not going to be living alongside New York City politicians," he said. "We're going to be living with people in the South Bronx, and they have been clear in saying that they want us here."
South Bronx Unite, in a press release, lamented that FreshDirect "would add over a thousand diesel truck trips each day to a community with sky-high asthma rates." It added that at a hearing last month, hundreds of local residents testified in opposition to the project's state subsidies and "not a single local resident provided testimony in favor of the project."
One local politician expected to be on hand is Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who has long supported bringing FreshDirect to his underemployed borough.
"This project represents new jobs and new development, and is a key component of our 'New Bronx' agenda," Mr. Diaz said in a statement. "FreshDirect has cleared every hurdle placed in its way, and today's groundbreaking puts the company on the fast track to (its) future Bronx relocation."
FreshDirect claims it is poised to deliver on its promise to foster growth in its new neighborhood. In addition to committing the majority of the 1,000 new jobs to Bronx residents, Mr. Ackerman said that his company is enthusiastic about bringing in other employers. "This project is going to generate a huge amount of business development in the area," he said. "We want to absolutely encourage as many services as possible to follow us into the South Bronx."
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