Fresh Direct selects the Bronx for new headquarters

Fresh Direct will announce today that it is relocating to the Bronx despite the lucrative incentives New Jersey offered the online grocer, the New York Daily News reported.

Fresh Direct will spend $112 million to build a new, 500,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution center at the Harlem River Rail Yards, and will add another 1,000 jobs to the roughly 2,000 employees it currently staffs. Formerly based in Long Island City, Fresh Direct hopes the new location, set to open in 2015, will facilitate an expansion into Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

The grocer will receive $130 million in grants, tax breaks and tax credits, from the city, state and borough, including $20 million in capital investment from various municipal agencies. New Jersey had offered nearly $100 million in benefits to lure Fresh Direct to the Garden State. [NYDN]