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A Fresh Take


Walton EMC to Supply Power for Gotham Greens’ Hydroponic Greenhouse in Monroe

A food company with a fresh take on growing produce is opening its first Southeast location within Walton EMC’s service area.

New York-based Gotham Greens is putting the finishing touches on a 210,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art hydroponic greenhouse in Monroe’s Piedmont Regional Industrial Park. The new Walton EMC industrial customer-owner expects to begin shipping from the local facility this summer, says a company representative.

The company’s product portfolio includes greenhouse-grown leafy greens and herbs, along with a line of refrigerated salad dressings, dips and cooking sauces. The products are sold in roughly 3,000 grocery stores nationwide, including Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market and Kroger locations.

Locating a regional greenhouse in Georgia helps solve some supply chain challenges by reducing the need for long-distance refrigerated transportation. The Monroe greenhouse will also give local consumers access to a fresher product, said Gotham Greens co-founder and CEO Viraj Puri. He notes that 98% of lettuce grown in the United States comes from California and Arizona.

“By the time it reaches most parts of the country, it has lost quality, taste and nutritional value, and has a much shorter shelf life,” he said.

Gotham Greens currently grows and harvests produce at greenhouses in New York, Illinois, Rhode Island, Maryland, Colorado, Virginia and California. After new projects in Georgia and Texas are completed this year, the company will own and operate 13 high-tech, climate-controlled hydroponic greenhouses, totaling more than 40 acres across nine states.