City CouncilEconomic Development
Council plans hearing on collapsed $650 million Hunts Point market deal
As recently as June, the city told Council members the rebuild was moving ahead. Here is what the record shows, and what the hearing will need to answer.
The City Council plans to hold an oversight hearing on why a $650 million deal to rebuild the Hunts Point Produce Market fell apart this summer, Gothamist reported on Thursday. No date has been set.
The market matters well beyond the South Bronx. It is the country's largest wholesale food distribution center, on more than 100 acres of city-owned land. According to Gothamist, about 1,000 diesel refrigerated trailers run at the site, and one in five South Bronx children develops asthma. The rebuild was meant to replace those trailers with a modern building. About $370 million in federal grants and loans tied to the project is now uncertain, Gothamist reported.
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What officials have said
Gothamist reported that the co-op of market operators rejected the agreement over concerns about how it could change their business. Speaker Julie Menin called the project "mission critical." Council Member Virginia Maloney, who chairs the Committee on Economic Development, said she wants to know why a project "that promised so much for the South Bronx is no longer moving forward." Council Member Justin E. Sanchez, whose district includes the market, said it cannot "quietly disappear without accountability," according to Gothamist.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani blamed the Adams administration for what he described as a weak deal rushed through in its final days, and said the city would "create a new path forward," Gothamist reported. The outlet said he did not address the federal money.
What our records add
The Council's own hearings this year show the project presented to members as on track until at least late June.
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March 17, preliminary budget. At the Economic Development Committee's budget hearing, Maloney listed the Hunts Point rebuild among the capital projects she wanted the Economic Development Corporation to explain (video at 3:30). EDC's testimony described an "historic agreement" for a new, fully electric facility that would end the idling diesel refrigerated trucks (10:30). Asked how the money would be phased, an EDC official said the new market would be built all at once next to the existing one, under a design-build contract, with the move hoped for by the end of 2029 (1:07:59).
May 29, executive capital plan. At a Finance Committee hearing, Maloney noted that the executive capital plan pushed money from the five-year window into the ten-year plan, and asked whether projects such as the Hunts Point Produce Market would be affected (4:12:30).
June 26. At another Economic Development hearing, EDC again listed advancing the market's redevelopment among its accomplishments (20:30).
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Gothamist first reported the deal's collapse in September.
The committee. The Committee on Economic Development has seven members: Maloney, Kevin C. Riley, Amanda C. Farías, Shanel Thomas-Henry, Jennifer Gutiérrez, Alexa Avilés and Chris Banks. Sanchez is not a member. Our records show 17 bills pending before the committee, 15 of them for more than 180 days. None of them concerns the market. The committee had no hearing on its calendar as of Saturday.
What's next
The hearing will be the first time the administration answers questions about the collapse on the Council record. Members have signaled several lines of questioning: the fate of the federal funding, what the operators' co-op objected to, and, per Gothamist, the roughly seven months it took the administration to name an EDC president.
When a date is posted, it will appear on the meetings calendar and the committee's page. Video and a searchable transcript follow on the meeting page after the hearing.