AUSTRALIA: Urban Farmer Makes Use of Vacant CBD Space
Richard Cornish
Dec 6, 2023
The future of farming is here. High-tech indoor vertical farms are sprouting up beneath our city buildings and taking over unused CBD real estate. Just a chip’s throw from Crown Casino in Melbourne’s Southbank, a former BMW showroom has been transformed into a productive farm.
Apart from the faint trickle of water, and the whoosh of traffic outside, the farm is almost silent and spotlessly clean. Tall modular racks, covering just 50 square metres, hold pots of microgreens that are hydroponically grown under LED strips.
Peter Fox keeps a close eye on his vertical planting system. Eamon Gallagher
The plants, which range from the aromatic Japanese herb shiso to vermillion coloured sorrel to dainty, days-old parsley, are destined for some of Melbourne’s finest restaurants, all near the building. When the plants are ready to eat, the pots are loaded onto a trolley and pushed along the streets to their destination. There they are put into compact and attractive microfarms in businesses’ foyers and hotel restaurants.
The operation is run by Sydney-based vertical farming business Greenspace.com. It was founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur Peter Fox, who co-founded travel site Viator (he sold the business in 1999, long before its 2014 $US200 million acquisition by TripAdvisor). Before that, he ran a TV production company that created Better Homes and Gardens for the Seven Network.
Greenspace.com differs from most vertical farm agribusinesses instead of a large central farm, it centres on small community-based farms based in CBD locations. These supply live plants to nearby hotels, restaurants and businesses.
“It’s mathematical, says Fox. “We started by identifying potential customers and then look for farm locations nearby.” His first farm was in Sydney in the basement of Tower Three at Darling Park on Sussex Street. Within 12 months he set up another farm in the Edgecliff Centre on New South Head Road.
The salad leaves and edible flowers are grown to order to suit the clients’ needs. Japanese-born, vertical farming expert Joji Imabayashi has designed the farm, so it can be installed within three weeks in existing spaces. “They are lightweight and modular and can be built or packed down and moved on in a matter of a few days,” he says. Gone are the great bags of perlite, a bulky growing medium. Instead, Imabayashi has replaced it with a cutting edge microgel called Jelli Grow, which is produced by Nanollose. A 1 kilogram bag, when rehydrated, can replace a palette of perlite.
“The environmental considerations of what we are doing are quite amazing,” says Fox. “Our packaging and our set-up is recyclable, compostable or re-useable. We use a fraction of the water used to grow conventional crops and the end user is in walking distance. Zero food miles,” he says.
The vertical farm industry is worth about $US5 billion ($7.5 billion) annually with a predicted fourfold growth to $US39.9 billion by 2032, says global research company Precedence Research. Over the next 10 years Precedence estimates a compound annual growth rate for the sector to be just under 23 per cent.
There are multiple factors pushing growth in this relatively new form of horticulture Globally there is a growing crisis of insufficient, arable farmland compounded by the rapid destabilisation of the climate causing crop damage and destruction.
Then there are rising populations, especially the movement of people from rural areas to cities. Closer to home, vertical farming can also create value from underperforming property. With grow beds stacked up to eight high and yields of 50 to 100 times conventional outdoor farming, a small vertical farm covering just a few hundred square metres can make financial sense even in the heart of a city.
The lease on Greenspace.com’s first Melbourne site in Southbank ends mid next year. The two-story building in which it is presently housed is earmarked for demolition next year. So Beulah property developers can start construction on the twin STH BNK towers. With access to power and water, and close to scores of restaurants and a dozen hotels the site was perfect for Fox and his team.
Fox is presently in talks with Beulah to integrate a vertical farm into its STH BNK build. “Beulah are looking at it as a ESG strategy,” says Fox. “The macrofarm can serve both the residential and commercial tenants.” Fox believes that with some lobbying the Green Building Council of Australia will, in future recognise, Greenspace.com’s carbon neutral method of raising and distributing food. “I strongly believe this will lead to better star ratings for building who have farms installed,” says Fox.
One of Greenspace’s first clients was Richard Millar, director of culinary at W Hotel, Sydney. “The herbs and greens look great. They’re fresh, packed with flavour,” says Millar. He has two of the micro farms at W Hotel, these are freestanding purpose-built units designed and manufactured in Sydney.
One stands by the entrance of his third floor flagship restaurant BTWN. Chefs harvest the greens just before service using them as garnish or an integral part of the dish.
“This is the best chance to use locally grown food in the 35 years I have been cooking,” adds Millar. “If they [Greenspace.com] can grow them 50 metres from the hotel and transport them here without burning a drop of fossil fuel that aligns with the values of a hotel group that has stopped using single use plastics.”
The South Bank site currently houses a farm, and Greenspace hopes it will be incorporated in the new development.
ANZ is an early client. As part of its Green Ambassador programme, the bank offers employees in its Melbourne Collins Street and Sydney Pitt Street offices fresh greens every week. “The reaction from staff has been overwhelming positive,” says Jeff Elliot, the bank’s environmental sustainability lead. “The plants are usually gone within a few hours of delivery each week.”
Approaching its second year, Greenspace.com now has 12 staff in two states and, after an initial investment of $2.9 million, looks set to be self-funding by April.
While the first round of funding was raised onshore from four Sydney business executives, Fox already has his eyes on more distant horizons and is now in Europe raising a further $10 million to expand his new green revolution into Europe, Asia, North America and the Middle East