Mushroom farm planned for agri-business park

A Canadian company is finally able to proceed with plans to build a mushroom farm at the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park.

The company, known for the project as Genesee Valley Mushrooms, Inc., (GVM) was originally considered the first business to commit to the ag park back in 2008, but the deal stalled.

GVM will purchase 10 acres in the park and employ 100 people.

In the ag park, GVM will build a 70,000-square-foot growing facility. It's also planning a 37,000-square-foot facility for substrate, the material for growing mushrooms, off Wortendyke Road in Batavia. That substrate facility could use, among other material, the byproduct (manure) of Batavia Downs.

The company is expected to spend more $20 million on construction of the facilities.

Genesee County's Ways and Means Committee approved a grant application resolution to receive funding for the project from the state. The exact amount of the grant has not been determined.

The grant application needs to come from the county government.

Mark Masse, a VP with GCEDC, said the facility will be the first mushroom growing facility in the state. Grocery stores throughout New York will be able to market the mushrooms as locally grown.

With an unnamed business near closing on an 81-acre parcel, plus Marktec, the GVM project, and Alpina combined with Alpina's first-right-of-refusal on another 10 acres in the park, the 200-acre ag park is nearly half sold.

The park could fill up quickly, Masse said.

"We have more companies in the pipeline than available acreage at the park," Masse said.