New Jersey satellite to Hunts Point in the future?
New Jersey satellite to Hunts Point in the future?
Many cities are thinking outside the box and building state-of-the-art wholesale produce markets.
Matthew D'Arrigo, who has in the recent past held the office of president or co-president of the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative Association Inc. in the Bronx, NY, does not see a new produce market in New York in the foreseeable future. But he does believe it's time to think outside the box.
"Highly speculative" discussions have taken place at Hunts Point board meetings about building a satellite market in northern New Jersey.
Lending background to this thought, Mr. D'Arrigo said Nov. 27, "The long and short of it is that dealing with the city's bureaucracy over the past 21 years since we became a cooperative association -- and over the past six or seven years since I became the president -- has shown it is a very slow, slow process getting the city to act on any large capital expenditure deal involving the rebuilding of the market or anything else. Although we are working with them currently, in a sense I feel it will be a very difficult thing to get them to pull the trigger on this rebuild. It is a $500-million cost, and there is a big question mark as to who is going to pay for it. The merchants don't own the property; we are tenants of New York City. New York City owns this market. We pay rent to the cooperative association."
The "basic idea" behind a satellite office is that "New Jersey is a much more willing participant in potentially partnering with us in building infrastructure in a northern New Jersey location, where we can run a satellite market over there."
There are millions of people who live and buy produce in northern New Jersey, observed Mr. D'Arrigo, who is vice president of D'Arrigo Bros. Co. of New York Inc. Fresh produce for those consumers doesn't need to cross the George Washington Bridge to get to the south Bronx, then be shipped back through New York traffic and across the bridge to New Jersey. He estimated that a Jersey location would save at least $200 on any truckload coming from the West.
In this arrangement, Mr. D'Arrigo believes that the top management of a satellite operation would remain in Hunts Point. "We can have a computer link and run an outside kind of satellite market. Everyone can run them from here. The buying and selling would be done from here and the delivery from there."
Mr. D'Arrigo cautioned, "This is all highly speculative and it is starting to be thought about by the members of our board of directors. For decades we have thought about leaving here and moving to New Jersey." But, he added, "The thinking of the board is not along those lines. It is very difficult to gain a consensus" to have the entire market move. "I, myself, don't think it's a good idea to move from Hunts Point; but it is a good idea to have a satellite located in New Jersey."
He said that metropolitan New York has to grow in the suburbs because there is nowhere to grow within city limits. He observed that in the 1960s, 7 million people lived in the five boroughs of New York City. That number has grown to 8 million, and the population of metropolitan New York is now on the order of 18 million people. "The idea to traipse to New York's Hunts Point is maybe not valid any more," he stated. "I personally think the hub idea is the best idea."
He re-affirmed, however, "Rebuilding the market is still best. The worst is that we get nothing done and continue to operate in inferior facilities while the rest of the world is thinking outside the box and building state-of-the- art facilities - while our market share erodes. Maybe we only have to spend $100 million in New Jersey, and now we don't have to bring it all to New York and we don't keep it all in storage vans [in Hunts Point] any more."
Mr. D'Arrigo concluded, "There are three paths here. We can do nothing. We can rebuild Hunts Point and enter into a new era with a new Hunts Point. Or we can start a different kind of era and start to put satellite markets closer to where the people are. We'd cut up geographic market segments with a [terminal] market in the middle of a segment."
Matthew D'Arrigo, who has in the recent past held the office of president or co-president of the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative Association Inc. in the Bronx, NY, does not see a new produce market in New York in the foreseeable future. But he does believe it's time to think outside the box.
"Highly speculative" discussions have taken place at Hunts Point board meetings about building a satellite market in northern New Jersey.
Lending background to this thought, Mr. D'Arrigo said Nov. 27, "The long and short of it is that dealing with the city's bureaucracy over the past 21 years since we became a cooperative association -- and over the past six or seven years since I became the president -- has shown it is a very slow, slow process getting the city to act on any large capital expenditure deal involving the rebuilding of the market or anything else. Although we are working with them currently, in a sense I feel it will be a very difficult thing to get them to pull the trigger on this rebuild. It is a $500-million cost, and there is a big question mark as to who is going to pay for it. The merchants don't own the property; we are tenants of New York City. New York City owns this market. We pay rent to the cooperative association."
The "basic idea" behind a satellite office is that "New Jersey is a much more willing participant in potentially partnering with us in building infrastructure in a northern New Jersey location, where we can run a satellite market over there."
There are millions of people who live and buy produce in northern New Jersey, observed Mr. D'Arrigo, who is vice president of D'Arrigo Bros. Co. of New York Inc. Fresh produce for those consumers doesn't need to cross the George Washington Bridge to get to the south Bronx, then be shipped back through New York traffic and across the bridge to New Jersey. He estimated that a Jersey location would save at least $200 on any truckload coming from the West.
In this arrangement, Mr. D'Arrigo believes that the top management of a satellite operation would remain in Hunts Point. "We can have a computer link and run an outside kind of satellite market. Everyone can run them from here. The buying and selling would be done from here and the delivery from there."
Mr. D'Arrigo cautioned, "This is all highly speculative and it is starting to be thought about by the members of our board of directors. For decades we have thought about leaving here and moving to New Jersey." But, he added, "The thinking of the board is not along those lines. It is very difficult to gain a consensus" to have the entire market move. "I, myself, don't think it's a good idea to move from Hunts Point; but it is a good idea to have a satellite located in New Jersey."
He said that metropolitan New York has to grow in the suburbs because there is nowhere to grow within city limits. He observed that in the 1960s, 7 million people lived in the five boroughs of New York City. That number has grown to 8 million, and the population of metropolitan New York is now on the order of 18 million people. "The idea to traipse to New York's Hunts Point is maybe not valid any more," he stated. "I personally think the hub idea is the best idea."
He re-affirmed, however, "Rebuilding the market is still best. The worst is that we get nothing done and continue to operate in inferior facilities while the rest of the world is thinking outside the box and building state-of-the- art facilities - while our market share erodes. Maybe we only have to spend $100 million in New Jersey, and now we don't have to bring it all to New York and we don't keep it all in storage vans [in Hunts Point] any more."
Mr. D'Arrigo concluded, "There are three paths here. We can do nothing. We can rebuild Hunts Point and enter into a new era with a new Hunts Point. Or we can start a different kind of era and start to put satellite markets closer to where the people are. We'd cut up geographic market segments with a [terminal] market in the middle of a segment."
