FreshDirect breaks ground on 500,000 square foot facility as protestors demonstrate outside
Bronx Times
By Patrick Rocchio
Online grocer and delivery service FreshDirect is relocating to the Bronx, but the move is not without its detractors.
A groundbreaking ceremony and program was held for the new 500,000 square foot production facility and office complex in Mott Haven on Monday, December 22, even as protesters outside of the gates on East 132nd Street could be heard chanting slogans in opposition to the project.
Most of the borough’s political establishment supports the relocation of the grocer to the vacant, waterfront parcel of land on Bronx Kill, across from Randalls Island, arguing that the company’s move from Long Island City will bring more jobs to a borough in desperate need of them, while allowing the 600 Bronxites already employed at FreshDirect to work nearer to their homes.
But grassroots community groups, most notably South Bronx Unite, continue their protests of $128 million in government tax credits for the company, as well as concerns about asthma in their community.
