Fresh kale bags and delicate micro -green – distributed last week in an open house of the Grow Erie facility in Savokio Park – are a reminder of what the new facility was built for $ 5 million.
But the supporters of the project say that the crops raised there and the revenue they will produce only hints of its value.
Василий, Kale, Lettuces и други зелени се отглеждат в Grow Erie от Intag Aquaponics в Park Park Savocchio в Ери на 16 май 2025 г. Grow Erie е партньорство, ръководено от инвестиционната коалиция на малцинствената общност за разширяване на възможностите за близките жители и заинтересованите страни.
The 17,000 square meter facility on the 1811 Paragon Drive was built in the middle of a former Brownfield in one of Erie’s poorest neighborhoods.
Developed by the Eri County County Authority, the newly opened complex is owned by the Minority Investment Coalition, formed in 2016 by Booker T. Washington Center, Martin Luther King, and Corpby Community Corp.
Scientific support and design work for the facility come from partnership with integrated agricultural systems known as Intag.
The facility, which has already produced its first cultures, is expected to take advantage of the community by providing jobs to the residents of the neighborhood, returning money to MCIC and supporting the construction and operation of a community garden where residents can grow their own food.
Erie -based Curtze Co., which serves the restaurant industry, has already signed as a leading customer for food grown in the commercial facility.
How does everything work?
Paul Nickerson, a leading Intag designer, said the 17,000 square meter facility provides a climate -controlled space where lettuce, cabbage and herbs are grown in plastic trays that keep the roots of these plants immersed in water.
21 -year -old Logan Milli, cleans trays after use in greenhouses managed at Grow Erie by Intag Aquaponics at the Savokio Possibility in Erie on May 16, 2025. Grow Erie is a partnership led by the investment coalition of minorities to expand the residents and
This is a common misconception, he said that plants cannot survive when their roots are submerged. The problem is not water, but the lack of oxygen. A special oxygen concentrator deals with this problem, he said.
“You can’t drown a plant, but you can suffocate it,” Nickerson said.
Elsewhere in the building, purple growing lights illuminate trays of microzemes that are grown in the soil of a pot and grow to maturity between eight and 20 days.
Like plants in the greenhouse, microvers are fertilized with the help of a processed fish sludge. So far, this precipitate comes from the Fairview State Fish hatchery. In the end, fish waste will be produced on the spot after the facility begins to grow its own fish, Nickerson said.
Grow Erie is intended to take advantage of a social need, but is still facing the challenges of making a profit, he said.
“You can’t just give out the cultures,” Nickerson said. “See our power account. These oxygen concentrators cost a lot of lettuce.”
Vasily, Kale, Lettuces and other young plants are grown at Grow Erie by Intag Aquaponics in the Savocio Possibility in Erie on May 16, 2025. Grow Erie is a partnership led by the investment coalition of minorities to expand the residents and to expand
The project is more than fresh kale
Tina Mengin, CEO of the Eri County County Authority, was among those who were on hand to show the facility last week.
“It’s exciting. It’s been coming for a long time,” she said. “This project embodies what economic development is. Take a brown field that has been in a dream for 20 years. It will hire people and bring high -tech farming in the city center.”
Candace Battles, a retired social worker who is a member of the board of our Western Bay, was impressed.
“I think it’s great,” she said. “They carry something new in a community where people would not have these opportunities.”
The idea comes from the community
The project financing – a total of $ 5.6 million – comes from various sources, including grants from the Erie Community Foundation, Erie County and Erie.
But the idea came from the EastSide community itself, said Gary Horton, who is also president of NAACP in Erie and founder and CEO of Urban Erie Community Development Corp.
“The idea for the project did not come out of the mayor’s office, not the authority, but from the minds of black -brown people and new Americans,” Horton said.
In short, the concept was home.
“There are so many people who think that poor black and brown people can do nothing, but no one has embarked on our neighborhood on a white horse,” Horton said.
On one level, the Grow Erie project is evaluated as a success.
The project is among those included in the Infinite Erie investment playboy and it is the first to be completed, said Kim Thomas, CEO of the group.
More than anything, said Thomas, she likes the message sent by an investment of such size in a neighborhood where such investments are rare.
“It’s something new. It’s something transformative,” said Thomas. “This is a change of the Buffalo Road corridor game. I think what it does is the motivation of the spur.”
More: Where is the environmental cleaning of $ 1 million in Erie’s Quin-T property?
Thomas expects that the project, which has already brought scientists to work in this brilliantly new facility, will create both jobs, investment in Spinoff and a sense of pride.
More: The Urban Agriculture site is formed in Savokio Park. When will it be ready?
It promises to change the way people see where they live, she said.
“They see the investment in resources, not only in the city center, not only on the bay, but also in their own community.”
Contact Jim Martin to jmartin@gannett.comS
This article originally appeared on the Erie Times-News: Grow Erie Greenhouse is an investment of $ 5.6 million in the community