06 Apr

New York Rooftops Becoming a Farmer’s Paradise

Rooftop farming would be perfect on your New York City no fee apartment rental building.

New York City rooftops are perfect for the farms of the future. Already, there is one large commercial farm operating on the rooftops of several buildings. Known as the Brooklyn Grange, it’s located at 37-18 Northern Boulevard in Long Island City, Queens. Although it’s a private business, Brooklyn Grange is community oriented and open to the public. School groups, families, and volunteers are welcome to visit, participate and learn.

Now come Bright Farms, a private company that develops greenhouses, announced plans to create a sprawling greenhouse on a roof in Sunset Park that is expected to yield a million pounds of produce a year — without using any dirt.

The hydroponic greenhouse, at a former Navy warehouse that the city’s Economic Development Corporation acquired last year, will occupy up to 100,000 square feet of rooftop space.

“Brooklyn was an agricultural powerhouse in the 19th century, and it has now become a local food scene second to none,” said Paul Lightfoot, the chief executive of Bright Farms. “We’re bringing a business model where food is grown and sold right in the community.”

Hydroponic farms are ideal for rooftops, according to Bright Farms, because they have such high yields and are less heavy than soil-based operations. They also use far less water, while diverting storm water from the sewer system, which can overflow during heavy rain. The Sunset Park greenhouse would capture an estimated 1.8 million gallons of storm water each year.

Gotham Greens, another company, has a hydroponic rooftop garden in the Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Next year, Gotham Greens plans to open three new rooftop greenhouses in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx; added to the 20,000-square-foot Greenpoint greenhouse, the new sites, which will be hydroponic, would raise the company’s total production to 200,000 square feet.