Four more food companies will move to or expand in the Bronx with city subsidies, and FreshDirect said Tuesday it will hire 200 people over the next three months as it prepares to relocate to the borough.
Last week, city officials approved about $30 million in tax exemptions to help Fairway Bakery, Food Fest Depot, Krinos Food and “R” Best Produce put down roots in the Bronx, despite ongoing controversy over a recent subsidy deal for FreshDirect.
The companies will invest more than $40 million and will receive the tax breaks over 25 years.
The New York City Industrial Development Agency okayed the four new deals Oct. 10, eight months after it awarded about $84 million in tax breaks to help FreshDirect relocate from its Long Island City, Queens headquarters to the South Bronx waterfront.
The FreshDirect move will create up to 1,000 new jobs, according to the online grocer and city officials. But local residents and activists have organized to block the project, citing concerns over air quality, waterfront access and wages, and three Bronx politicians have called for additional environmental review.
FreshDirect will hire at least 200 people by mid-January and is recruiting Bronx residents for various positions in its present location, it said in a press release Tuesday, part of a high-powered campaign to bolster its image. Freezer workers make $11.25 to $12 an hour.
Meanwhile, the four deals approved Oct. 10 will create up to 250 additional jobs, officials said. New jobs are not an explicit requirement of the deals, however.
“The commitment of these four companies to expand and invest in the Bronx is a vote of confidence in the borough’s future,” said Kyle Sklerov, spokesman for the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
Fairway Bakery will move from Manhattan to 511 Barry St. in Hunts Point. It will relocate 73 existing jobs to the Bronx and expects to create 36 new positions.
Krinos Foods will move from Queens to a property in the Bathgate Industrial Park that has been vacant for more than 25 years, said Marlene Cintron, president of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation.
It will relocate 79 jobs, create three new jobs and build a 100,000-square-foot base.
“R” Best Produce will move from Hunts Point to 400 Walnut Ave. in Port Morris, relocating 51 jobs and creating 21 new jobs, and Food Fest Depot will relocate from Exterior St. to 550 E. 132nd St. in Mott Haven, bringing 16 jobs and creating eight new jobs.
The borough is already home to the sprawling Hunts Point food distribution center, said Cintron.
“We have a concentration and expansion of food-related business coming to the Bronx,” she said. “We want to be the zone that feeds the eastern seaboard.”
FreshDirect said 75 of its new jobs would be plant positions; five such openings were listed on its website Tuesday.
