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$15M urban-agriculture plan to transform Detroit space

 Jennifer Chambers, The Detroit News 2:14 p.m. EDT October 26, 2015

 A $15 million urban-agriculture project announced Monday is expected to transform 22 blocks of blighted land

on Detroit’s lower east side into a massive swath of greenhouses and hoop houses.

The project’s 60-acre footprint — south of Interstate 94, along Chene Street to Forest Avenue — includes 35

acres of vacant land the city wants to lease to RecoveryPark, a nonprofit whose mission to help ex-offenders

and recovering addicts find employment.

Mayor Mike Duggan said the project, to be operated by RecoveryPark Farm, a for-profit entity, will transform

lives by putting vacant land to use and employing ex-offenders. The project must be approved by the Detroit

City Council, which is expected to consider the issue next week.

“One of the questions that we are facing as a city is what do we do with the vacant land that’s left behind,” Duggan said. “Today is an example of what I

hope becomes the basis for the development of this land.”

The project will contain greenhouses, hoop houses and other agriculture businesses to grow specialty vegetables. It will employ up to 128 people within

three years with 60 percent to be Detroit residents.

Duggan made the announcement at the Chene-Ferry Market, which will be restored and serves as a center for RecoveryPark operations and distributio

“We are not just transforming property. We are going to transform lives,” Duggan said. “They are taking the hardest to employ folks in our community an

putting them to work on land that had been long abandoned and forgotten.”

Gary Wozniak, CEO of the RecoveryPark, said the nonprofit grows specialty produce sold to chefs at several of Detroit’s high-end restaurants such as

Selden Standard and Gold Cash Gold. With $15 million of new capital investment coming into the neighborhood, Wozniak said he hopes to have a

minimum of 20 acres of hydroponic growing and high tunnel growing.

(Photo: David Coates / The Detroit 

News)

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“We are working with a regional distributor on making a contract of a minimum of $8 million in specialty produce that’s going to take us into 440

restaurants over a 10-year time. That’s exciting as well,” he said.

Investors in the nonprofit include the Erb Family Foundation, the Kresge Foundation and the Detroit Development Fund.

The property would be leased from the Detroit Land Bank Authority. Spokesman Craig Fahle with the authority said the project will beautify the

neighborhood and be a huge part of the recovery of the east side of Detroit.

“This project is on a scale we have not seen in the city,” Fahle said. “It’s very exciting.”

JChambers@detroitnews.com

Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/1N2FQPA

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