BrightFarms Breaks Ground On $10M IL Greenhouse

ROCHELLE – New York-based BrightFarms Inc. broke ground today on a $10 million, 160,000-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse that officials say should be up and running by early next year.

Chicagoland Greenhouse, near Bay Valley Foods, just off Interstate 88, will grow more than 1 million pounds of salad greens – kale, arugula, baby spinach, and lettuce – as well as tomatoes and basil a year for suburban grocer Mariano’s, a division of Milwaukee-based Roundy's Supermarkets Inc.

About 2 dozen greenhouse jobs will be created, and more than 100 local construction jobs, said Paul Lightfoot, BrightFarms CEO.

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