Hunts Point Market

Hunts Point Produce Market is again threatening to move to New Jersey. Despite having secured a $172.5 million incentive package from the city, the market said it would allow the exclusive negotiating window with the city to expire, the New York Times reported.

The market and the city were believed to be on the verge of finalizing an agreement to keep the market, which generates $2.3 billion in sales annually and employs more than 3,500 people, in the Bronx, where it has been located since 1967. But the market cooperative and the city can’t agree on the role of the Business Integrity Commission, an agency charged with preventing organized crime in carting. [more]

Hunts Point Produce Market

The local food movement is styming the city’s best effort to keep the Hunts Point wholesale produce market, and it’s 3,000 jobs, in the South Bronx and away from the Garden State, according to the New York Times. The city has been negotiating with the cooperative that owns the 45-year-old market in hopes of reaching an agreement by June 29, at which point New Jersey would reopen talks with the market. [more]

After more than 100 uninvited community members expressed intentions to attend an exclusive breakfast with Walmart executives yesterday, there was a last minute location change from the Lindenwood Diner to a private office building on Atlantic Avenue and Eastern Parkway.

“If they want to hear from the community, then why am I not in there?” asked one Community Board 5 member. “I was not invited. I went inside and they wouldn’t let me in.”

As reported earlier this week, Walmart hosted an invitation-only breakfast for East New York, Brooklyn local leaders as part of its efforts to gather community support for a Walmart store in the neighborhood. Most of the several dozen invitees, such as clergy or community board members, either support the project or are undecided, while those who have been openly critical of the proposal were not invited…. [more]

The Hunts Point produce market is opposed to a New York City Walmart, regardless of whether the supermarket giant sources its produce from Hunts Point. Market board member Joel Fierman said the invasion of Walmart would decimate local grocers and destroy the city, according to the Daily News.

“It’s not about the business they throw at us,” he said. “It’s about the damage they do. Walmart wouldn’t be a good fit for the city.”
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has been working on a deal that would require Walmart to purchase produce for any New York City store at Hunts Point. … [more]

The lease for the 1 million-square-foot Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative Market expired yesterday, and today the Wall Street Journal brings word that its vendors have reached a tentative deal with the city to stay in the South Bronx for three more years while the two sides hammer out a more long-term arrangement. Per the terms of the deal, the co-op will negotiate exclusively with the city for the next nine months over the construction of a new facility and a long-term lease. … [more]