Author: Katy Pelissier, Food and Farms Manager, Ecotrust
Publish Date: Summer 2017
The Redd on Salmon Street is a new Ecotrust development located in the heart of Portland’s historic Central Eastside that is designed to support local food enterprises, connect chefs, foodservice directors and entrepreneurs to independent farmers, ranchers and fishers in the region, and help scale a robust, regional food economy across the Pacific Northwest.
Ecotrust is a regional nonprofit based in Portland, with a mission to inspire fresh thinking that creates economic opportunity, social equity, and environmental well-being. As part of that mission, Ecotrust is working to create robust regional food economies, which provide social, financial, and environmental benefits to the same communities who depend on these systems for nourishment. Building up a strong regional food system helps to make fresh, healthy food accessible to all; offer economically viable value chains and fair compensation to workers; support production methods that renew the resources upon which we depend; and provide redundancy to global supply chains.
One obstacle that arose again and again was the fact that food infrastructure is not readily or affordably accessible by the Pacific Northwest’s “Ag of the Middle” producers (those ideally scaled to serve a resilient regional food system) and that this lack of access is inhibiting the growth and development of a robust regional food system. Ecotrust developed the Redd to address some of these critical gaps in food system infrastructure and to create a container that facilitates and catalyzes long term collaboration by innovative partners with a shared mission and different businesses.
The Redd offers both the infrastructure and amenities essential to a growing enterprise, as well as a vibrant community where urban food producers connect with the rural farmers, ranchers, and fishers that supply them. The Redd is comprised of a two-block, 80,000-square-foot food production and distribution campus including two buildings: Redd West, a former distribution hub and sales center; and the Redd East, a 1918 ironworks.
With more than 20,000 square feet of warehouse space, Redd West serves as a cold storage, aggregation, packaging, and distribution center, and also includes three commercial production kitchens. In partnership with B-Line Sustainable Urban Delivery, which will manage the Redd’s warehousing and distribution center, rural producers can make one efficient drop at the Redd — rather than dozens all over town — where B-Line will manage warehousing, aggregation, and last-mile logistics.
Are you a small farm, ranch, fishery, or value-added food business interested in expanding or streamlining your access to Portland markets? If so, B-Line Sustainable Urban Delivery has a variety of services now available. A la carte offerings include:
• Dry racks
• Cold storage
• Frozen storage
• Full stalls
• Desks in a co-working space
A price sheet and details are on B-line’s website and can be found here: http://b-linepdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/B-line-Warehousing-and-O...
For more information about the Redd and Ecotrust, visit www.reddonsalmon.com and www.ecotrust.org.
We look forward to growing the community with you!