Hydroponic greenhouse opens in Cleveland

Constance Suggs-Wilson is one of the local residentswho is an employee-owner at Green City GrowersGreen City Growers, a 3.25-acre hydroponic greenhouse located in Cleveland's economically depressed Central neighborhood, opened for business this week.

The greenhouse is expected to produce three million heads of lettuce and 300,000 pounds of herbs annually for regional grocery stores, food service institutions and wholesalers. CEO Mary Donnell says the operation began harvesting its first crop this past January.

All of Green City Growers' employees are also owners, and they are employed all year. Donnell says she expects the greenhouse will eventually employ 40 local residents.

Green City Growers is part of The Evergreen Cooperatives, an integrated network of for-profit, employee-owned green businesses in Cleveland. The Evergreen Cooperative Corporation is the holding company leading the greenhouse initiative, the corporation's latest -- and largest -- project to date.

"This is to the best of anyone's knowledge, the largest food-production greenhouse in a core urban area in the U.S., and one of the very largest local food initiatives in the U.S.," Donnell says.

Read more about Green City Growers here.

Photo: Jerry Mann