ITHACA, N.Y. — GreenStar’s West End project at 770 Cascadilla St. got an official kick-off Thursday with a groundbreaking celebration.
Currently, the space is just an empty building lined with graffiti but over the next year, it will transform into the site of GreenStar Cooperative’s new headquarters. The ceremony Nov. 8 was not just a celebration for the cooperative grocery store’s new spacious building, but for the beginning of more development to come on Ithaca’s waterfront.
General Manager Brandon Kane said the groundbreaking puts GreenStar on the path to opening its flagship store in early 2020.
“It represents a new era for New York State’s largest consumer cooperative enterprise,” Kane said. He said the expanded campus will give GreenStar the capacity to fulfill its commitment to the community.
“This commitment is broad and audacious. It includes fostering a self-reliant local economy, creating meaningful jobs at a living wage, demonstrating the exponential power of a culturally competent business and offering an array of delicious, natural foods.”
The new West End store will expand from 6,500 square feet to 16,500 square feet with the new location. There will be a larger deli, more seating in the cafe, more produce. With the expansion, all of their operations will be consolidated under one room including The Space, The Classrooms with a teaching kitchen, administrative offices and central kitchen.
Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick said Ithaca is lucky to have a constellation of institutions like GreenStar, Buffalo Street Books, or Gimme! Coffee that “work together to create a city that looks out for itself.”
“If our economy is going to be successful into the future, it’s because the future has to look more like the past,” Myrick said. “We have to get more of our food from places that are grown close to us. We have to live closer to our neighbors. We have to pay the lowest-paid workers in our city more and we have to see a little bit better income distribution. And GreenStar is moving us toward that future.”
Heather McDaniel, president of Tompkins County Area Development, said the groundbreaking marks the beginning for GreenStar and for the community. She said GreenStar’s operations contribute more than $6 million to the purchase of goods within 100 miles of the City of Ithaca. She also thanked them for employing over 200 residents in the community. With the expansion, GreenStar will also add 40 jobs.
“That’s economic development and that’s supporting the community,” McDaniel said.
Lincoln Morse, of Morse Construction, also part of Organic Nature, a shared business entity between GreenStar and the developers of City Harbor, said GreenStar’s new West End campus is “ground zero” for Ithaca’s West End and waterfront revitalization. He said he has done development in Ithaca for 30 years and is the most proud of the development project at GreenStar.
“Look to the South. Look to the North. Look to the West. It will not look this way in four years,” he said. “We will still have amazing green space but what we will deliver is an economic and vibrant community that is organic. It supports itself.”