Bathgate Urban Food Industry
1. Grow
healthy food, primarily produce, in proximity to a large urban population that
is presently underserved.
2. Grow
food economically and sustainably.
3. Distribute
food products to the neighborhood at a lower cost by eliminating the high
embedded cost of transportation and spoilage from long distance supply sources.
4. Utilize
available technologies for on-site electrical power generation (OSG) to provide
low cost green power to the food production, wholesale food and retail grocery
tenants.
5. Provide
on-site parking and a farmers market to make BUFIC a destination food resource
for the surrounding community.
6. Advance
the operational and, therefore, the financial viability of urban food
production.
7. Provide
reduced adverse impact of development on electrical water infrastructure.
8. Raise
consciousness about food and health for people and the critical environmental
impacts of food on urban quality of life.
9. Provide
new jobs and job training for a newly emerging industry.
10. Provide
a community outreach center to develop and implement food, nutrition and
sustainability related programs and information to the local population.
11. Provide
a farmers market site on property.
12. Provide
50% On-Site Stormwater Retention; utilize retention for food production,
thereby reducing impact on existing water and sewer infrastructure.
13. Develop
metrics to advance market transformation of integrated On-Site Generation
linked to Controlled Environment Agriculture food production.
With a shortage of such business in operation, this is a MAJOR OPPORTUNITY to transform numerous Urban Industrial sites into a vital and sustainable new industry in making NYC greener.
Urban food production, combined with OSG and food wholesale, distribution and retail uses offers a model for providing fresh healthy food, produced in a green, healthy manner in a densely, urban community location. BUFIC, if implemented, will seed additional market investments in this approach and become a new model for adopting and recycling underused urban industrial sites into a vital new industry – The Urban Food Center Integrated Development – financially, socially and environmentally.
