Urban agriculture site in Savocchio Park takes shape

The project is the result of a public-private partnership called Grow Erie and is intended to bring a commercial aquaponics facility and a community greenhouse to the 25-acre park.

In June 2023, groundbreaking took place for an innovative agricultural project at the Joyce A. Savocchio Opportunity Park, raising hopes that the former Superfund site will finally live up to its name and offer new opportunities to the east side of Erie.

These hopes are likely to be fulfilled in the coming months.

The project, a public-private partnership called Grow Erie, aims to build a commercial aquaponics facility and community greenhouse in the 25-acre park at the intersection of East 18th Street and Downing Avenue.

Construction on the aquaponics facility is underway and is expected to be completed by the end of October, said Tina Mengine, CEO of the Erie County Redevelopment Authority. She expects the facility to begin growing in January.

Construction of the community greenhouse is expected to begin in late fall.

Together, she said, the facilities represent a $5 million investment and are expected to generate about $750,000 annually and help revitalize one of Erie’s poorest neighborhoods.

“This is one of my favorite projects,” Mengine said. “I love it because it’s on the east side. I love it because it’s urban agriculture, which everyone is talking about as the future of agriculture. For us, it’s very cool to have such a forward-looking, high-tech facility at this location.”

How will the facilities work?

The 1500 square meter aquaponics facility consists of a main steel building and two attached year-round greenhouses. Each of the two greenhouses houses a large deep-water culture pond and herbs and leafy vegetables are grown using hydroponic equipment.

Hydroponics is a plant growing technique that uses water-based nutrient solutions instead of soil.

“The plants will float on rafts and their roots will hang in nutrient-rich water,” said Paul Nickerson, co-founder and vice president of Integrated Agriculture Systems, a Harrisburg-based sustainable agriculture company that is supporting the project.

“The equipment for this comes from the Netherlands. They are the best at it. The type of rafts they use are fairly new and high quality. This is one of their first major implementations of this technology.”

Nickerson said the main building will house vertical racks for the production of microgreens, including plants such as pea sprouts and micro beets.

The main building will also house INTAG bioreactors that process fish waste and convert it into natural growth nutrients for plant cultivation. This process does not require chemical, salt-based fertilizers.

Mengine said fish waste would be collected separately and the plant would not catch fish as originally planned.

“By not breeding fish anymore, we’re saving about $800,000,” she said. “Plus, it’s a specialty business and we couldn’t find buyers for all the trout, and it became too complicated.”

According to Mengine, the facility is designed specifically for commercial customers such as Curtze Food Service, a food wholesaler near the park that contracts to purchase most of the facility’s produce.

In contrast, the 230 square meter community greenhouse will be open to the public and operated as a cooperative. The climate-controlled greenhouse, which allows for year-round crop production, is located across Paragon Drive from the aquaponics facility.

What impact will it have?

Mengine described Grow Erie – a partnership between the Minority Community Investment Coalition, the Redevelopment Authority and INTAG – as both an economic development initiative and a catalyst for community development.

“It used to be a dump, a wasteland – now it’s going to be teeming with activity and jobs. And not just minimum wage jobs,” she said. “It’s all highly technical, so we’re going to be training skills here. And ideally we’ll add warehouses so it gets bigger and we can hire more people.”

Mengine said MCIC, with support from INTAG, will initially hire about a dozen workers, with the aim of also involving residents from the surrounding community.

James Sherrod, co-founder of MCIC and CEO of Bayfront NATO Inc., said Grow Erie will prove to be an engine of change on the east side.

“There hasn’t been much investment on the east side for a long time,” he said. “This is an opportunity for us to create jobs and development here and hopefully stimulate further investment in this area.”

He added: “It is also a great opportunity for the people in this area to have their own area where they can work and grow fruit and vegetables – and not just in their own garden.”

According to Mengine, Grow Erie’s annual profit is estimated at $748,000, which will be reinvested in the community as well as in project expansion.

Funding for Grow Erie came from sources including the City of Erie, Erie Community Foundation, Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority and Diverse Erie. Mengine said the project has secured around $4 million and still has a number of outstanding grants to reach its $5 million goal.

Gary Horton, co-founder of MCIC who helped drive Grow Erie, called the park a “beacon of hope and opportunity” for a neighborhood that has long suffered from disinvestment.

“From a personal and professional perspective, I’m beyond thrilled with the progress we’ve made,” he said. “I can already see the impact it’s had on the community here – that even in our neighborhood, something can rise from the ashes.”

AJ Rao can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @ETNRao.

The project is the result of a public-private partnership called Grow Erie and is intended to bring a commercial aquaponics facility and a community greenhouse to the 25-acre park.

How will the facilities work?

What impact will it have?

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