667,000-SF Produce Hub Readies to Break Ground

PHILADELPHIA-Groundbreaking for the Philadelphia Regional Produce Market’s 667,000-sf new facility is scheduled for next Wednesday, with Mayor Michael Nutter and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell expected to attend, according to a news release. As GlobeSt.com previously reported, the produce center is being developed on a 46-acre remediated brownfield by Essington Avenue Partners, a joint venture of King of Prussia-based O’Neill Properties Group and Newtown Square, PA-based Corvest Realty.

According to published reports, an agreement was signed late last month by the produce market, the JV and the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority for a 40-year lease. The new facility at 6700 Essington Ave. in Philadelphia is expected to cost $218.5 million and be completed in approximately two years, according to a release from the JV. Much of the funding is coming from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, according to an April news release from Pennvest, the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority, announcing an $11-million loan to the JV. The loan was to enable the JV to remediate a site that formerly held an automobile salvage operation, a scrap yard and a landfill.