Council to Press Mamdani Team on Hunts Point Market Collapse

The City Council plans to put Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s economic development team on the spot over the collapse of a plan to rebuild the Hunts Point Produce Market, one of the largest and most closely watched public projects in the South Bronx. The hearing has not yet been scheduled, according to Gothamist, which first reported the plans.

The session is expected to examine Mamdani’s broader economic development strategy, including the fact that it took him nearly seven months to name a head of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, the agency charged with working with the private sector to create jobs and carry out large-scale projects like this one. Council Speaker Julie Menin has called the $650 million plan “mission critical,” according to the report.

Councilmember Virginia Maloney, who chairs the economic development committee, said in a statement that she has “a lot of questions about how a project with so much potential for economic development, and support from every level of government, from City Hall to Washington, ended up here.” She said she looks forward to chairing the hearing and getting answers about why the project is “no longer moving forward.”

Councilmember Justin Sanchez, who represents the district, called the project “the most significant environmental justice investment in our city.” He said the promises of cleaner air, fresher food, less waste and a healthier Bronx “fell apart for reasons that are still unclear,” and warned against letting the effort “quietly disappear without accountability or a clear path forward.”

The city owns more than 100 acres where the sprawling market operates; Hunts Point is the largest wholesale food distribution center in the country. In his final days in office, former Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan to build a new facility that would have eliminated the need for around 1,000 diesel-spewing refrigerated trailers at the site. Roughly two dozen operators use the trailers because the market’s 1960s-era warehouses lack sufficient refrigeration capacity. The trailers have become symbols of environmental injustice in a part of the Bronx where one in five children develop asthma. The city also sought to secure the market’s long-term future.

But the powerful co-op of market operators rejected the deal, citing concerns over how the project could change their way of doing business. The collapse stunned city officials and others who had spent years on the effort.

City Comptroller Mark Levine called it “one of the most important economic development projects in New York City.” He told Gothamist earlier this month: “For a lot of reasons, we cannot let this fail. You can’t leave 1,000 diesel trailers running 24-7 as a refrigeration solution in a modern American city. That’s just not acceptable.”

Mamdani’s office pointed to the mayor’s own remarks when asked about the project’s fate. Speaking last week at an economic development event at NYU, Mamdani accused the Adams administration of assembling a deal that left the city with weak bargaining power. The framework, he said, “stated that if this deal was not accepted, then the current lease would be renewed for additional years.” He added that it was a framework “that I am not sure many people ever had confidence that it could sustain itself.” The mayor said the city is now looking to “create a new path forward,” but he did not address the loss of state and federal funding for the project, according to Gothamist.

A spokesperson for the Hunts Point Produce Market did not respond to Gothamist’s request for comment.