He also laments the lack of space for trucks: “The market was designed back in the mid-1960s when the largest trailers where 40 feet long. We now predominantly deal with 53-footers, so maneuvering the trucks around is sometimes problematic. There really isn’t adequate space for the trucks to be staged waiting to get unloaded, and the services available to the truckers inside are negligible.”
Kazan doesn’t blame the management of the market, however, saying the team does a commendable job under the circumstances with a limited ability to improve on these issues, given Hunts Point’s current footprint. Vendors and management alike were hoping for action from city officials sooner rather than later, but delays have meant improvements in rail beds and siding are all that have come to pass in the last year.
Physical Ailings
If there is a common factor facing everyone at Hunts Point, it is the trial of doing business in a facility whose usage numbers have exploded while its physical stature and infrastructure haven’t kept up.
Many members have scrambled to keep pace; E. Armata acquired and completely renovated a new space for its potato and onion departments last year, and this year acquired a second unit to house its growing Eastern vegetable department.
Stefanie Katzman, marketing director for S. Katzman Produce, Inc., points to the company’s purchase of the Morris Okun units as one of its major moves: “We’ve expanded our business and needed more space, so we bought other units on the market.”
Katzman concedes Hunts Point “is on the older side, and a little outdated” but found a way around these obstacles. “We have gutted and redone our warehouses to better handle product and better service our customers,” she says.
The unspoken threat—or opportunity, depending on who you ask—is the often discussed possibility of moving to New Jersey, which would offer major expansion in terms of physical space while still keeping the terminal market under the watch of the Port Authority.
The move would, of course, present major logistical headaches and moving expenses for every vendor—and the possible loss of customers. To forestall this scenario, the terminal’s Cooperative Association announced a feasibility study to look at the costs, procedures, and requirements for an upgrade to the existing facilities in the Bronx. The issue and future of the Hunts Point market, as reported here for several years, is far from settled.
Waiting For Inevitable Change
In addition to the move or upgrade saga, for A&J Produce’s Pelosi, it’s something else altogether. He echoes another familiar, timely theme when talking to vendors on the market: a sense of neither setbacks nor advances, but of treading water and waiting for the next big decision to be made.
Facing a slow year for growth and the possibility of a major reassessment of Hunts Point based on which way the political winds are blowing, he says, echoes the uncertainty that has permeated most aspects of doing business in 2016.
