Brick City Development Corp., Newark, NJ’s economic development catalyst, has announced it has completed the sale of a 105,000-square-foot South Ward Industrial Park site to Bartlett Dairy. Bartlett will bring more than 400 jobs to the city over the next 5 years.
“Creating jobs is one our top priorities,” said Lyneir Richardson, CEO, Brick City Development Corporation. “The core of our work is focused on building a sustainable economy in Newark. This includes job creation, job retention, and leveraging private and public investment to attract businesses that strengthen the economic base of the city,” Said Richardson.
Bartlett Dairy is a major food and dairy distributor with operations in New Jersey, Connecticut and New York with sales in 2009 of $141 million.
“Distributors rely on efficient access to transportation in order to prosper. Newark offers advantages over other sites in the region including access to the largest Port in the Northeast, three airports, an extensive highway system, affordable real estate, 50,000 person university community, and a ready workforce,” said Richardson.
Lyneir Richardson has overall responsibility for business attraction and real estate development. Richardson’s primary focus is to actualize the development in the pipeline. Bartlett Dairy is just one of the many projects BCDC is bringing to fruition.
Bartlett Dairy will proceed with the relocation in phases. The initial phase is the relocation of their operation in Clifton, NJ and 175 jobs, which will be completed by June. Over the next 2-3 years, Bartlett intends to relocate to Newark more than 150 jobs from their other facilities in New Jersey and Jamaica, New York. Bartlett expects to create an additional 100 new jobs through growth over the next five years.
As part of the acquisition, Bartlett has agreed to a first-source hiring under which it will give priority to Newark residents for all openings. In addition to Newark residents at large, Bartlett will target job openings to participants in Mayor Cory Booker’s prisoner reentry program.
“This is a great example of the type of partnerships we are attempting to create, which help to foster better relationships between employers and the community,” said Ingrid Johnson, Chair of Reentry Initiatives for Newark.
Bartlett Dairy is a major food and dairy distributor with operations in New Jersey, Connecticut and New York with sales in 2009 of $141 million. Crain’s recently ranked Bartlett as the 5th largest minority-owned company in the metropolitan region. Bartlett is the exclusive, tri-state distributor to over 550 Starbucks stores. Bartlett is also the largest fresh milk distributor in the Northeast for Elmhurst Dairy, one of the most trusted milk processors and packagers in the business.
