South Bay Center Expansion | Dorchester

mass88 said:
This may be a stupid question, but what exactly is the purpose of the produce center?
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Produce is shipped directly from farms to the produce center. From the produce center it's shipped out to stores.

BTW the old New England Produce Center was located at Quincy Market, they moved in 1968.
 
Interesting. Does it cater to smaller stores? I know Ahold (parent company of Stop & Shop) has their own trucks that make runs out to the West Coast to bring the produce in themselves to their Assonet warehouse.
 
mass88 said:
Interesting. Does it cater to smaller stores? I know Ahold (parent company of Stop & Shop) has their own trucks that make runs out to the West Coast to bring the produce in themselves to their Assonet warehouse.
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Mass -- General answer is that whenever you see one of those trucks with the name of some local wholesaler of produce driving around you can be fairly certain that there was a connection to Chelsea involved. I suspect that even some of the major super market chains source some of their in-season produce through the Produce Center.

As an example of a smaller place -- Wilson Farm in Lexington [described by Ch5 Chronicle once as a museum of the best in produce] get's much the stuff that they don't grow themselves through the Produce Exchange.

While some the produce that they source is local and may come directly from the local apple orchard, Jersey Peaches, Canadian Blueberries, Dutch orange peppers, Chilean Grapes, bananas, pineapples, etc., arrive via the Produce Exchange. Early every morning rain, shine, heat or snow storm, one of the Wilson family heads to Chelsea to supervise the buy of the produce to be sold in Lexington beginning a few hours later.

The produce exchange also provides much of the produce that ends up on restaurant tables often through one of the food brokers whose office/warehouses are located near to the Produce Center in Chelsea or Everett
 
And the weekend produce market at Haymarket sells whatever is leftover and didn't get sold throughout the week at the Produce Center in Chelsea. That's why Haymarket's produce is so cheap (it's the last chance to sell before the trash), but also usually overripe and close to going bad.

[end tangent]
 
Im hoping for a Pet store here,anyone of them would be fine, I have to go to Quincy or Brighton or Lechmere by the T from my Dorchester home.
 
JumboBuc said:
And the weekend produce market at Haymarket sells whatever is leftover and didn't get sold throughout the week at the Produce Center in Chelsea. That's why Haymarket's produce is so cheap (it's the last chance to sell before the trash), but also usually overripe and close to going bad.

[end tangent]
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Interesting, I wonder if that's where Baby Nats gets their stuff too, they're so cheap
 
In regards to distribution centers, I am wondering if many of these facilities could move to South Boston. Specifically between E Street and Pappas Way, and along Fid Kennedy Ave. That area is already full of these types of business', and the lots that I am referring to are basically completely empty. Access to the harbor (for shipping transfers), the airport (for air), and trucking (it is a 5 min drive between South Bay and this area via the bypass road), are close to ideal.
 
Cortes said:
In regards to distribution centers, I am wondering if many of these facilities could move to South Boston. Specifically between E Street and Pappas Way, and along Fid Kennedy Ave. That area is already full of these types of business', and the lots that I am referring to are basically completely empty. Access to the harbor (for shipping transfers), the airport (for air), and trucking (it is a 5 min drive between South Bay and this area via the bypass road), are close to ideal.
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Cortes -- Google the Produce Center and look at the satellite view
https://goo.gl/maps/Cis3JVYgdvJ2
[Note all those tick mark like things are 14 to 18 wheel trucks]

Other than resiliency / access diversity the area around the Produce Center is the place

You don't need the harbor -- but if you did, Chelsea has it sas well as rail and good truck infrastructure

Finally, the Papas area is the next decade growth area for the South Boston Seaport / Innovation / GE District
 
Cortes said:
In regards to distribution centers, I am wondering if many of these facilities could move to South Boston. Specifically between E Street and Pappas Way, and along Fid Kennedy Ave. That area is already full of these types of business', and the lots that I am referring to are basically completely empty. Access to the harbor (for shipping transfers), the airport (for air), and trucking (it is a 5 min drive between South Bay and this area via the bypass road), are close to ideal.
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That's exactly what Massport is proposing for Marine Terminal. But that site is more a relocation target for Boston Food Market at Widett Circle than NEPC. Everett Terminal already has all the logistics NEPC would ever want or need, and NEPC is in a modernized facility...so they would have zero interest in a lateral move across town. Everett Terminal is also the only privately-owned, non-Massport deepwater terminal out of the six terminals that ring the Inner Harbor, so it's out of reach for the civic planning gods to impose their own site master plan on it.

The goal isn't to take every food warehouse in town and stack them like cordwood in some deep dark corner so developers can have some free acreage. With Widett the land is valuable, but the Food Market is also very haphazardly laid out and not at all efficient for what it's supposed to do because of the haste with which the site was built when those vendors were relocated out of Quincy Market by City fiat in the early-70's. If anything Boston needs to think along the lines of NYC with Hunts Point Market and expand its wholesale food distribution scale with some sort of multi-modal master plan to leverage modern facilities at peak efficiency. Doesn't need to be anywhere near the sheer size of Hunts Point because this is a compact region with lots of small underutilized ports to spread out to (especially when it comes to seafood). But building out Marine T., encouraging independent growth at NEPC, and modernizing the meat-packing row at Newmarket Square instead of letting the BRA lick chops at razing that whole block would pretty much serve the needs if there were some sort of overarching plan driving the investment.
 
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Foundation work is underway at this site. According to Bldup the South Bay Town Center is expected to open in 2018.

https://twitter.com/Lee_Kennedy_Co?ref_src=twsrc^tfw
 
Geez I've been in Dorchester 30 yrs and I never knew those little pockets of housing was back there
 
Boston02124 said:
Geez I've been in Dorchester 30 yrs and I never knew those little pockets of housing was back there
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The pocket to the upper left is cool - it's all narrow, deteriorated little roads and you can get into that big sand and gravel complex in the left middle and walk or drive around. Feels much bigger an area when you're there than it looks from the air.

**


They're really diggin up a lot dirt — I didn't know this thing was really happening as in breaking ground now, let alone that multiple components would all get going at once.
 
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Looks like they knocked down a craptacular 1 1/2 storey generic big box/strip mall/warehouse retail building already.

That's a good start.
 
That neighborhood is a street that connects Boston st to Mass ave... These "luxury" apartments are going to be sandwiched between a a cement factory, a seafood wholesaler and one of the worst shopping areas in New England. Good luck
 
Deetroyt said:
The Polish Triangle is right next to it, generally considered the area bordered by Boston St, Dorchester Ave and Columbia.
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Here's Google Map's Definition of the "Polish Triangle"
https://goo.gl/maps/AGx6iaVcL9s

By the way even if your knowledge of "foody things" of the Polish nature is limited to supermarket kielbasa -- check out the Baltic Deli on Dorchester Ave with Cafe Polonia [operated by the same family] directly across the street
 
SeamusMcFly said:
Looks like they knocked down a craptacular 1 1/2 storey generic big box/strip mall/warehouse retail building already.

That's a good start.
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Its been a long time since I've been in the area. Is this all where the Kam Man used to be?
 
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