New Philadelphia market will try to please all buyers
New Philadelphia market will try to please all buyers
PHILADELPHIA - "The cold chain" is a catch phrase in the produce industry, and no one denies its benefits to fresh produce.
As the Philadelphia Regional Produce Market develops a design for its new market, initial plans called for entirely maintaining a cold chain to please the most heat-sensitive of any fresh produce commodities.
A substantial component of warehouses bearing the label "state-of-the-art and "cold chain is tractor-trailer bays that seal around the edges of a trailer to assure that neither heat nor excessive cold enter a facility to damage product and perhaps generate negative food-safety issues.
But, what if when designing a state-of-the-art terminal market not all customers have tractor-trailers to back into the market bay?
In Philadelphia on May 4 to meet with the market design committee to discuss this very question, consultant J. Gary Lee of the Lee Organization Inc. in Baltimore was walking the market before the 11 a.m. meeting. Not only were open pickup trucks and private cars loading small quantities of produce to take home, but Mr. Lee saw a taxi waiting while one produce buyer loaded 25 produce boxes into the cab.
Hours later, as Sonny DiCrecchio, general manager of the Philadelphia Regional Produce Market, related Mr. Lee's story to The Produce News, Mr. DiCrecchio emphatically noted, "We want to keep that customer in the taxi.
It's hard to imagine a taxi, SUV, family van or private car fitting into a cold chain environment. Thus, as Philadelphia's design committee has asked difficult new questions about the new market design, Mr. Lee and Baltimore's Jim Colimore of the architectural design firm Colimore Gallow offered solutions.
The duo, which Mr. DiCrecchio credits for making this new market economically feasible, showed revisions of recent plans. Still in place was a sprawling rectangular, entirely refrigerated warehouse with a long center interior walk for customers. Two rows of refrigerated warehouses will line the center walk, and those will be surrounded by a wide temperature-controlled apron for receiving, assembling and shipping produce. But to accommodate those who shop from taxis and somewhat larger but unconventional vehicles, the new plan shows six T-shaped covered docks that extend, three each, from each long side of the market. These open-air docks will have roofs to protect product and customers from sun, rain and snow. The six Ts will accommodate simultaneous loading for 240 small vehicles.
Mr. DiCrecchio said that there are sound reasons why many customers drive small vehicles. Many, he said, make deliveries down tight alleyways to the back doors of small city restaurants. Or the drivers may need to double-park to make quick deliveries. There are hundreds of such customers that buy from Philadelphia wholesale distributors. "They can't change how they deliver, Mr. DiCrecchio noted. If a new market is designed that won't serve them, "If they change anything, they'll change who they buy from. We don't want that.
The new market will still have docks to simultaneously serve 325 tractor-trailers or straight jobs. These spots will be cold-chain safe.
Mr. DiCrecchio said that there are some large step vans, in the 18- to 20-foot range, that are large enough to haul six pallets of produce. These are too small to fit the modern closed loading dock. But they are common enough and big enough to receive special consideration in market design. Thus, the Philadelphia market is going to pay for the design and construction of special new equipment to extend to such vans from truck bays to maintain the cold chain.
Mr. DiCrecchio said that the addition of six open-air T-shaped loading docks comes at the expense of market space. Philadelphia merchants unanimously agreed to give up four feet of width to each warehousing unit to accommodate the small-volume market customers. This means reducing the pallet capacity of each unit by 80 pallets, down to a unit capacity of 450 pallets.
Mr. DiCrecchio said that the design committee will finalize this new concept within 30 days. The market construction will then be put out for bid.
Mr. DiCrecchio added that the new market dodged logistical, political and economic hurdles through the acquisition of 29 additional acres that will house the wholesale fish market. Today, the brick fish market backs up to the similar produce market, as the two facilities were built together in 1959 as part of Philadelphia's unprecedented Food Distribution Center. Mr. DiCrecchio is responsible for moving the fish facility in addition to his produce industry tenants. Until this issue was resolved, the entire project was in jeopardy, he said.
Plans remain to begin construction this summer and to finish the new markets within two years.
As the Philadelphia Regional Produce Market develops a design for its new market, initial plans called for entirely maintaining a cold chain to please the most heat-sensitive of any fresh produce commodities.
A substantial component of warehouses bearing the label "state-of-the-art and "cold chain is tractor-trailer bays that seal around the edges of a trailer to assure that neither heat nor excessive cold enter a facility to damage product and perhaps generate negative food-safety issues.
But, what if when designing a state-of-the-art terminal market not all customers have tractor-trailers to back into the market bay?
In Philadelphia on May 4 to meet with the market design committee to discuss this very question, consultant J. Gary Lee of the Lee Organization Inc. in Baltimore was walking the market before the 11 a.m. meeting. Not only were open pickup trucks and private cars loading small quantities of produce to take home, but Mr. Lee saw a taxi waiting while one produce buyer loaded 25 produce boxes into the cab.
Hours later, as Sonny DiCrecchio, general manager of the Philadelphia Regional Produce Market, related Mr. Lee's story to The Produce News, Mr. DiCrecchio emphatically noted, "We want to keep that customer in the taxi.
It's hard to imagine a taxi, SUV, family van or private car fitting into a cold chain environment. Thus, as Philadelphia's design committee has asked difficult new questions about the new market design, Mr. Lee and Baltimore's Jim Colimore of the architectural design firm Colimore Gallow offered solutions.
The duo, which Mr. DiCrecchio credits for making this new market economically feasible, showed revisions of recent plans. Still in place was a sprawling rectangular, entirely refrigerated warehouse with a long center interior walk for customers. Two rows of refrigerated warehouses will line the center walk, and those will be surrounded by a wide temperature-controlled apron for receiving, assembling and shipping produce. But to accommodate those who shop from taxis and somewhat larger but unconventional vehicles, the new plan shows six T-shaped covered docks that extend, three each, from each long side of the market. These open-air docks will have roofs to protect product and customers from sun, rain and snow. The six Ts will accommodate simultaneous loading for 240 small vehicles.
Mr. DiCrecchio said that there are sound reasons why many customers drive small vehicles. Many, he said, make deliveries down tight alleyways to the back doors of small city restaurants. Or the drivers may need to double-park to make quick deliveries. There are hundreds of such customers that buy from Philadelphia wholesale distributors. "They can't change how they deliver, Mr. DiCrecchio noted. If a new market is designed that won't serve them, "If they change anything, they'll change who they buy from. We don't want that.
The new market will still have docks to simultaneously serve 325 tractor-trailers or straight jobs. These spots will be cold-chain safe.
Mr. DiCrecchio said that there are some large step vans, in the 18- to 20-foot range, that are large enough to haul six pallets of produce. These are too small to fit the modern closed loading dock. But they are common enough and big enough to receive special consideration in market design. Thus, the Philadelphia market is going to pay for the design and construction of special new equipment to extend to such vans from truck bays to maintain the cold chain.
Mr. DiCrecchio said that the addition of six open-air T-shaped loading docks comes at the expense of market space. Philadelphia merchants unanimously agreed to give up four feet of width to each warehousing unit to accommodate the small-volume market customers. This means reducing the pallet capacity of each unit by 80 pallets, down to a unit capacity of 450 pallets.
Mr. DiCrecchio said that the design committee will finalize this new concept within 30 days. The market construction will then be put out for bid.
Mr. DiCrecchio added that the new market dodged logistical, political and economic hurdles through the acquisition of 29 additional acres that will house the wholesale fish market. Today, the brick fish market backs up to the similar produce market, as the two facilities were built together in 1959 as part of Philadelphia's unprecedented Food Distribution Center. Mr. DiCrecchio is responsible for moving the fish facility in addition to his produce industry tenants. Until this issue was resolved, the entire project was in jeopardy, he said.
Plans remain to begin construction this summer and to finish the new markets within two years.
