Hydroponic Company Eyes North Hartford, Connecticut Land For Multimillion-Dollar Development
Hydroponic Company Eyes North Hartford, Connecticut Land For Multimillion-Dollar Development
Crews are working to dismantle the former Philbrick, Booth & Spencer warehouse and storage facility on Homestead Avenue to clear the way for new development. Crop One Holdings, which specializes in hydroponics farming, is in talks with city leaders to build on the properties. (Mark Mirko/Hartford Courant)
A California company is in talks with Hartford leaders to build a hydroponic farming facility along a desolate stretch of Homestead Avenue.
Crop One Holdings, a San Jose-based corporation, would invest more than $16 million in the project – $6 million in the structure and $10.5 million toward equipment, according to documents filed with the city. It plans to grow produce indoors, “substituting 320-square-foot growing units for up to 19 acres of farmland.” Hydroponics is the practice of growing plants in a water-based, nutrient dense solution.
Crop One would pay the city $250,000 for three properties along Homestead that combined make up a 3.5-acre area. Hartford recently got a $2 million grant to demolish blighted structures on the land. Crews began to dismantle the buildings this month, and work is expected to conclude by the end of the summer.
Mayor Luke Bronin has asked the city council to approve an agreement for Crop One that would free the company from paying real estate taxes for the first five years and reduce the amount of taxes in the following four years. It would also bring down the amount of personal property taxes the company would pay in the first five years (by 70 percent in the first two years, 50 percent in the third and fourth year and 30 percent in the fifth year).
The demolition of several blighted structures is underway along Homestead Avenue. Work is expected to be completed by the end of the summer. (Mark Mirko/Hartford Courant)
“Crop One will put back in productive use approximately 3.5 acres of blighted property, create 75 new jobs and make locally sourced fresh produce available to Hartford and surrounding communities,” Bronin wrote in a letter to the council.
He did not elaborate on the types of jobs, but said that the company has agreed to hire Hartford residents for “at least 25 percent of its direct labor workforce.”
Crop One owns a farm in Millis, Mass., and has several more in the pipeline, city officials said. Company leaders could not be reached for comment Friday.
The swath along Homestead Avenue is part of a federally designated “Promise Zone” that gets priority consideration for funding. It is also a state-designated “Opportunity Zone.” The status, created in the GOP federal tax legislation, rewards private investment in low-income neighborhoods.
The properties have been home to several tenants over the years, including the former warehouse and storage facility for Philbrick, Booth & Spencer, a steel-forging manufacturer.
“This is a triple win for Hartford – a green tech company bringing jobs to North Hartford and development to a site that’s been blighted for years,” Bronin said through a spokesman. “This would be the first real job creation in decades on the Homestead Avenue corridor.”
The city council is scheduled to meet Tuesday. Members said the proposal will be sent to a committee for review.