TIM STUHLDREHER | Staff Writer

September 4, 2018

Plans for a hydroponic vertical greenhouse in downtown Lancaster are moving ahead, its backers say, and the facility, budgeted at $16 million to $17 million, could start operating in the fall of 2020.

“This is our flagship project,” said Corey Fogarty, president of the nonprofit Lancaster Urban Farming Initiative.

The aim is not only to produce fresh, healthy vegetables in an environmentally friendly and economically sustainable manner but to employ people with physical and developmental disabilities as part of a diverse, inclusive workforce.

Nona Yehia, co-founder and CEO of Vertical Harvest, the Wyoming-based company partnering on the project, said it has the potential “to create a model that can affect communities all over the globe.”

Lancaster Chamber President Tom Baldrige said he’s impressed by the way the project combines Lancaster County’s agricultural heritage with the area’s expanding high-tech capabilities.

“It sets a vision for our future,” he said.

West Orange Street site eyed

Fogarty is an experienced entrepreneur; he is managing partner of the Federal Taphouse, among other endeavors.

The greenhouse would be built on a narrow strip of Lancaster Parking Authority property on West Orange Street along the facade of the Prince Street Garage.

Fogarty credits former Mayor Rick Gray with originating the idea, saying Gray suggested it when Lancaster UFI met with him a few years ago to discuss rooftop farming.

In 2016, the parking authority board gave the go-ahead for a feasibility study. Last month, after a follow-up presentation, the board agreed to begin contract negotiations for use of the tract.

For a vertical greenhouse, "it's almost uncanny how perfect it is," Fogarty said, with its central location and copious southern exposure.

Indeed, the layout would be almost identical to Vertical Harvest of Jackson Hole, a 13,500-square-foot structure adjoining a parking garage in Jackson, Wyoming. Opening in 2016, it has ironed out various technical kinks and converted skeptics, including a local Tea Party official.

Lancaster would be Vertical Harvest's second location. Originally, a greenhouse similar in size to Jackson's was envisioned here, with a budget of roughly $5 million. The plan has since scaled up considerably, to about 42,000 square feet.

It would be five or six stories high, and roughly 30 feet wide, Fogarty and Yehia said. A rendering shows it extending over much of the block, pedestrians strolling underneath.

It would grow crops year-round, conservatively yielding about 200,000 pounds a year, Yehia said, including vine vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers and the like), leafy greens and microgreens — high-nutrition vegetables harvested early in the growing cycle.

They would be sold to groceries and local restaurants; there would be a small retail store as well. The idea is to complement, not compete with, the area’s existing agricultural operations, Fogarty said.

The facility is expected to create 40 or more full-time-equivalent jobs. In Jackson, about half the work force consists of people with “different abilities,” and the goal here would be the same, Yehia said.

Financing

The $16 million to $17 million project budget has been thoroughly vetted, and incorporates what's been learned from building and operating Vertical Harvest Jackson Hole, Fogarty said: "These are real numbers."

Projections call for breaking even in the third year of operations, he said.

A variety of funding sources are being explored, he and Yehia said, including two state subsidy options: the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Grant and the City Revitalization & Improvement Zone programs.

The project could receive up to $10 million from the former. Funding for the latter would depend on the tax revenue the business generates. A project can only take advantage of one of the programs.

If it turns out that all the startup capital has to be raised from private sources, that’s fine, too, Fogarty said.

“We have private money that’s willing to step up,” he said. “We’re very confident that our money will be in place by the third quarter.”

Design and engineering is to start soon, with a goal of starting construction in the fall of 2019 and opening about a year after that.

Farming for a crowded world

Vertical farming has attracted extensive interest in recent years. Advocates tout its efficiency and say its small-footprint, high-output model is an idea whose time has come in a rapidly urbanizing world beset by water scarcity, soil depletion and energy challenges.

“It will never replace traditional agriculture, but it can be a supplement,” Yehia said.

Robert Berghage, a professor of horticulture at Penn State, said he supports urban agriculture in all its forms, but cautioned that it can be extremely challenging to make the economics of vertical farming work.

‘It’s tough to compete with a regular greenhouse,” he said. The industry has seen its share of hype and setbacks, and entrepreneurs need to be ruthlessly realistic about their costs and revenue projections.

Fogarty said that's what his team has done.

"We are confident it will be a sustainable business," he said.

Parking authority executive director Larry Cohen said the organization is pleased to help advance a progressive initiative "that should be exciting for everyone in the community."

Randy Patterson, director of economic development and neighborhood revitalization, said city government is supportive of the project.