Berkley Riverfront Park’s future is about to get BrightFarms

• BrightFarms
• A rendering of the planned greenhouse.

You could call it the greenhouse effect: A $4 million plan that not only encourages Kansas Citians to buy locally grown fruits and vegetables but also generates so much local produce that local food becomes the norm.

A small crowd of politicians and urban-agriculture advocates gathered March 25 at City Hall to announce that the Port Authority of Kansas City and Brooklyn, New York’s BrightFarms, an urban greenhouse builder, had worked out a 10-year lease for a multimillion-dollar project. BrightFarms would build a hydroponic farm on a nearly five-acre plot of land adjacent to Berkley Riverfront Park. The 100,000-square-foot development is expected to produce 1 million pounds of tomatoes, lettuce and herbs annually.