By Lynda Kiernan
Urban greenhouse innovator Gotham Greens has expanded, opening its sixth and largest greenhouse growing operation in the Pullman neighborhood of Chicago. This is the company’s second greenhouse in the Pullman area, and its addition will better enable the company to provide area consumers, restaurants, and foodservice customers with year-round fresh produce.
Launched by co-founders Viraj Puri, Eric Haley, and Jennifer Nelkin Frymark with a single 15,000 square-foot greenhouse on the roof of a bowling alley in Brooklyn, New York, Gotham Greens produces premium-quality produce and fresh food products using hydroponic, ecologically-sustainable, technologically-sophisticated, climate-controlled methods in urban greenhouses resulting in 95 percent less water, and 97 percent less land usage compared to traditional agriculture.
“Since 2009, we’ve worked to transform how and where fresh produce is grown to provide more people with access to local, sustainably-grown produce that is as delicious as it is nutritious,” said Viraj Puri, co-founder and CEO, Gotham Greens.
“After opening our first greenhouse in Chicago in 2015, we have received tremendous support from retailers, restaurants and shoppers alike who love that we can provide a reliable, year-round supply of fresh produce that’s grown locally. We’re thrilled to open our second greenhouse in Chicago to expand our production and distribution in the Midwest and bring our delicious leafy greens, herbs and fresh food products to even more people.”
This new 100,000 square-foot, climate-controlled greenhouse will be in addition to Gotham’s existing 75,000 square-foot, Chicago-based location opened in 2015, and its other locations in Brooklyn and Queens, New York; Providence, Rhode Island; Baltimore, Maryland; and soon-to-be Denver, Colorado.
It is the company’s most technologically advanced facility, including proprietary data-driven and highly automated controls for greater energy efficiency compared to other indoor farming methods.
It also will more than double the company’s Midwest supply of heads of lettuce to 11 million per year, and will increase Gotham’s Chicago-based team to 100 members, and its nationwide team to 300.
“Gotham Greens’ expansion in Chicago demonstrates its continued commitment to the city, state and region by creating new jobs and using its high-tech greenhouses to grow high-quality produce, even during the coldest winter months,” said Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.
“Agriculture is a vital component of our state’s economy, and I’m pleased to see opportunities for urban agriculture – like this greenhouse expansion. Investing in innovative solutions will keep Illinois at the forefront for decades to come and help create good jobs that can support a family.”
This expansion comes little more than a year after Gotham raised $29 million through an oversubscribed Series C led by the company’s existing investors and including the Silverman Group, a significant new investor from Creadev, a global private equity firm controlled by the Mulliez family.
This project directly fulfills the intentions Gotham Greens had when this funding was announced last year – that they would use the capital to finance its expansion trajectory, grow its team, expand its distribution, and to strengthen its R&D in controlled-environment food production, data science, and machine learning.
“The oversubscribed financing is strong validation of our proven farm unit economics, efficient utilization of capital, growth rate, and best-in-class brand,” said Eric Haley, co-founder and CFO of Gotham Greens at the time.
The Chicago Tribune reports that a clamshell of Gotham Greens’ lettuce costs $3.99. However, because of it’s hyper-local origins, it will stay fresh in a customer’s refrigerator for three weeks, compared to lettuce shipped from the West Coast that begins to wilt within days of purchase.
“We have democratized it for sure, so I think more and more retailers across the board are interested in the product,” Puri told the Tribune. “They are getting a fresher, longer-lasting product and that is where the value is.”
This quality has led to the company being profitable since its first year of operation, and its Midwest retail distribution network expanding to include Whole Foods, Jewel-Osco, Target, Heinen’s Grocery Store, Sunset Foods, Pete’s Fresh Market, and Peapod, and its institutional partnerships to include the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Greater Roseland West Pullman Food Network, Pilot Light, and the Chicago Botanical Garden’s Windy City Harvest.
– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to the GAI News and Agtech Intel platforms. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.