New York indoor farming company Gotham Greens has planted itself in Dallas-Fort Worth by opening its first high-tech hydroponic Texas greenhouse. Located in Seagoville 20 miles southeast of downtown Dallas, the 210,000 square foot facility will provide “a year-round supply of fresh produce that’s always in season to grocery and foodservice customers throughout the state,” the company said.
Gotham Greens’ new DFW operation expands its footprint to 13 greenhouse comprising 40 acres across nine U.S. states.
The company is kicking off its new Texas presence with a full line of GO TEXAN “locally grown, pesticide-free, non-GMO produce”—including the regionally inspired Lone Star Crunch lettuce and a new line of “fresh, convenient salad kits,” available in Southwest Ranch, Caesar, and Green Goddess.
Gotham Greens Butterhead Lettuce. [Photo: Gotham Greens]
Gotham Greens products are currently available across Texas and throughout the South, the company noted, on shelves at Whole Foods Market, Kroger, Sprouts Farmers Market, AmazonFresh, natural and independent grocery stores, and more.
Follows news of Eden Green’s $40M indoor vertical farm expansion in Cleburne
The new opening builds on indoor leafy greens operations in DFW, by following last October’s news that Eden Green Technology had broken ground on the $40 million Phase 2 expansion of its indoor vertical farm operation in Cleburne, south of Fort Worth.
Gotham Greens Co-Founder and CEO Viraj Puri [Photo: Gotham Greens]
Aiming to localize lettuce beyond the 90% supplied by California and Arizona
“Instead of shipping in lettuce and salad greens from California and Arizona, which provide more than 90% of all leafy greens in the country, Gotham Greens grows and delivers fresh, high-quality and longer lasting produce right in the heart of Texas using up to 90% less water and 97% less land compared to conventional open-field farming methods,” Co-Founder and CEO Viraj Puri said in a statement.
Puri said his company’s new, sprawling greenhouse in Seagoville “uses the most advanced technology to date, including enhanced automation, climate control and data science capabilities in a fully closed system to help consistently and reliably grow food closer to where people live no matter the weather outside.”
Creating up to 100 new year-round jobs—and saving tons of water
Gotham Greens said its new DFW facility will create up to 100 new year-round, full-time jobs “with competitive wages and benefits.”
It’s also putting a green stamp on the operation by saving water—and lots of it.
Gotham Greens’ leafy greens grow “reliably” no matter the weather outside, the company says. [Photo: Gotham Greens]
Founded in 2009, the Certified B Corporation and Public Benefit Corporation said it saves 300 million gallons of water every year compared to field-grown farming, which it says is the equivalent to “around 450 Olympic-sized swimming pools.”
Localizing leafy greens has a further sustainable impact by eliminating the need for long-haul trucking, Gotham added, allowing its produce “to stay fresher longer, thus increasing shelf life and decreasing food waste.”
Gotham said its new facility also points a way for Texas to mitigate climate change, as the state faces “ongoing extreme weather events and increased risk of drought.” Its indoor farm creates “the ideal conditions for plants to thrive” and provide consumers across Texas and throughout the southern U.S. with “sustainable produce year-round,” Gotham added.
Gotham Greens products. [Photo: Gotham Greens]
On the philanthropic side, Gotham Greens said that in 2023, it donated nearly 40,000 pounds of food to families in need. The company says it will work with local non-profit partners in North Texas “to help address food insecurity with donations and provide seedlings for community gardens and educational purposes.”
Also supplying local foodservice customers
In addition to putting its produce in local grocery stores, Gotham Greens products are available at foodservice customers through distributors such as Hardie’s Fresh Foods, the company said. It noted that consumers may have already enjoyed a taste of Gotham Greens products at restaurants including sweetgreen restaurants in Dallas-Fort Worth and other Texas metros, and the Zoé Tong restaurant in Austin, which featured Gotham Greens Vegan Pesto as part of a recent collaboration during Austin City Limits.
More looks at Gotham Greens
[Photo: Gotham Greens]
[Photo: Gotham Greens]
Gotham Greens’ spring mix. [Photo: Gotham Greens]
Gotham Greens salad kits. [Photo: Gotham Greens]
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R E A D N E X T
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Eden Green, a North Texas-based next-generation indoor vertical farming company, said the expansion in Cleburne is aimed at scaling commercial production to meet rising market demand and address "a perfect storm in our food supply chain."
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Eden Green Technology's newest vertical greenhouses in Cleburne will be able to grow 1.8 million pounds of produce annually in just 62,500 square feet of growing space, the company says. The facilities use Eden Green's proprietary microclimate environments, lighting solutions, and hydroponic vine systems. A second phase of the ag-tech startup's planned $47 million expansion is now under construction. That's expected to triple total production to more than 5 million pounds of produce annually.
