Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure, left, addresses attendees with Bowery Farming founder and CEO Irving Fain during the official opening of Bowery Farming's third commercial farm Thursday, May 26, 2022, in Bethlehem. According to a press release, the facility is Bowery Farming's most technologically advanced vertical farm, and is "a critical next chapter in Bowery’s growth as it reimagines how farming can be more sustainable and impactful for our future." (Joseph Scheller / The Morning Call)

The intersection of farming and technology converged Thursday on land once reserved for part manufacturing of steel.

Innovative agri-business Bowery Farming officially unveiled its first indoor commercial farm in Pennsylvania during a ceremony filled with speeches, thank yous and praise at the new facility in south Bethlehem, near Interstate 78.

State, federal and local officials heralded Bowery’s 156-000-square-foot building that sits on nearly nine acres on Feather Way in Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII. Officials with the New York company say it is the largest vertical farming company in the U.S., and that the new farm is the largest, most technologically advanced and sustainable farm in Pennsylvania.

[  Vertical farm bringing up to 70 jobs slated to open on former Bethlehem Steel land ]

It looks like a warehouse on the outside. Inside, according to Bowery, the site grows leafy greens such as varieties of lettuce using its proprietary software, sensors, robotics and more. Its produce consumes a fraction of water, and the farming operation creates less waste than traditional agriculture.

“I am glad to be at a warehouse I can actually stand in front of and be really happy about it,” Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure told CEO Irving Fain and about 100 people who attended the ceremony. McClure is among other officials to decry warehouses planned for previously undeveloped land, but he said Bowery’s warehouse/farm, on a brownfield site that was part of major Bethlehem Steel operations, helps to preserve open space while fulfilling the county’s obligation of growing jobs and development.

“This project, this company, is emblematic of the coming together of those two concepts,” McClure said of Bowery.

Vertical farming is the practice of growing plants in vertically stacked layers or inclined surfaces in which crops are grown indoors, using artificial light and a fraction of the water that traditional farming requires.

Privately owned Bowery plans to create 70 full-time jobs in Bethlehem. Fain declined to say what those jobs pay; he said during remarks that “many” workers — Bowery calls them “farmers” — are from the Valley, but he wasn’t specific. He also declined to provide average wages for the workers.

Fain said Bowery was drawn to the Lehigh Valley in part for its strategic location, which will enable it to deliver locally produced, pesticide-free food to an estimated 50 million people in the Northeast. While it sells to large supermarket chains, the company tries to build community partners, he said.

Among community leaders who attended, Maison Allen, development director of Second Harvest Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania, said Bowery officials reached out to the agency to develop the partnership. Bowery, which began ramping up production about two months ago, plans to provide Second Harvest, which is in East Allen Township, with “quite a few pallets” of lettuce for pickup Friday, Allen said. Bowery officials said they can produce lettuce and other greens every 30 days.

After remarks by several other officials, including Fain, Gov. Tom Wolf and Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds, visitors were able to tour the facility.

Wolf said agriculture is Pennsylvania’s top industry, contributing $132.5 billion to the economy and nearly 600,000 jobs. But Bowery’s farm, he said, is taking the industry to a new level, using a brownfield site to potentially helping to feed 50 million people per year supports more than 590,000 jobs.

Wolf also said while the state is providing more than $450,000 in grants and tax credits, Bowery has pledged to invest $32 million.

“This is a big thing for Pennsylvania,” the governor said. “It’s a big deal for Bethlehem’s economic revitalization.”

State Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said Bowery isn’t the first indoor farm in Pennsylvania; at least one other farm exists in Snyder County.

But others involved in the specialized business aren’t of the “scale and sophistication” of Bowery, Redding said. “It’s in a special class.”

Bowery and the state first announced the plan for Bethlehem in December 2020. Area developer J.G. Petrucci Co. constructed the facility, which is off Route 412 and Interstate 78.

“We never could have envisioned an agricultural operation on a brownfield site,” said Kerry Wrobel, LVIP president and CEO. LVIP acquired some 1,000 acres of Bethlehem Steel land nearly 20 years ago to create the industrial park. The land where Bowery is was in an undeveloped area, Wrobel said; a few acres were used to store coal, which was used in a coke plant near an adjacent property, he said.

“When we started [LVIP VII] 20 years ago, there was no such thing as an indoor farm.”

Morning Call journalist Anthony Salamone can be reached at asalamone@mcall.com.