The state Assembly is contributing $130 million to the $650 million modernization of the Hunts Point Produce Market, which will make the facility more environmentally friendly and bring it into federal compliance.
The New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) is overseeing the project with the Produce Market Cooperative and a private developer, according to an EDC spokesperson, who did not specify who the developer is.
The produce market is part of the city-owned Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, which also has a meat market and fish market and provides about 12% of the city’s food supply, according to the city’s June 2022 Hunts Point Forward report. The Hunts Point Produce Market itself supplies 25% of the city’s produce, while its neighboring Hunts Point Cooperative Market — the meat market — distributes 35% of the city’s meat each year.. The New Fulton Fish Market provides 45% of the city’s fish.
At more than 1 million square feet and home to more than 30 merchants, the wholesale produce market is the largest in the country and opened in 1967, according to the city report.
The modernization efforts will transform the market into a state-of-the-art intermodal freight facility with more than 800,000 square feet of refrigerated warehouse space and 200,000 square feet of ancillary space, according to the EDC spokesperson.
The effort will bring the facility into compliance with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Food Safety Modernization Act by expanding the refrigerated warehouse space and pallet capacity, the spokesperson said. The facility currently uses 1,000 diesel-powered refrigerated trailer units that idle onsite as additional storage, which will be eliminated as a result of the renovation, significantly alleviating the emissions going into the community.
The market’s modernization will also help address the impacts of thousands of daily diesel trucks that go through residential neighborhoods in the Bronx and…
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