Employees of FIC client producing a sliced, acorn-fed, Iberian ham in the center’s commercial kitchen.
[Rutgers Food Innovation Center (FIC) recently completed a feasibility study for a business incubation program for the City of Paterson and another study for the City of Bridgeton designed for its FIC “graduate” clients. Business Facilities magazine covered these two projects in its July/August issue.]
The City of Paterson is gearing up towards the launching of its first Food Business Incubator and Bridgeton’s Cumberland County Improvement Authority (CCIA) is developing a Food Industry Commercialization Center.
Patterson’s 30,000-square-foot facility will offer a fully equipped, state-of-the-art USDA/FDA certified kitchen, bottling and packaging areas, a demo-test kitchen, conference rooms and co-working spaces. The high percentage of food-related companies in Paterson and in the surrounding Northern New Jersey area, make it a food hub with exceptional access to a network of highways in the tri-state area. And the project will help to stimulate economic development in Paterson.
“We’re really excited about the possibility of a FDA-inspected commercial kitchen and food processing facility being located in Paterson, out of which food businesses in the region will be able to design, develop and commercialize their specialty products,” added Rutgers FIC Director, Lou Cooperhouse.
CCIA’s 27,000-square-foot center will be located in an area of abundant farmland and one that many prominent brands call home including General Mills/Progresso, Perdue, Hanover Foods, Rich’s Products and White Wave. Established food companies and entrepreneurs and aspiring food industry leaders alike that are planning to expand or introduce their product lines require abundant space and services and, CCIA will be able to provide both to enable these ventures to successfully meet their market launch objectives. Additional, a whole host of local, state and federal incentives make it attractive for businesses to locate here
“A number of our clients and our graduates at the Food Innovation Center routinely require between 2,000 to 3,000 square feet of space to meet their growing commercialization needs. In addition, we have a number of domestic and international companies that we work with, that are looking immediately for this amount of space as they launch their business to serve the U.S. marketplace.” Cooperhouse says tenants of the new Food Industry Commercialization Center also will have an opportunity to access the customized business consulting and technical mentoring services of the Rutgers Food Innovation Center that will be located immediately adjacent to this new facility. Services include assistance with product and process development, market and customer research, engineering support, food safety training, and other areas.
Read more about these exciting developments in the July/August issue of Business Facilities magazine.
