Riverside Breaks Ground On Northside Agriculture Innovation Center

After a decade of planning and fundraising — and two storm delays this year — the city of Riverside held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday to mark the start of construction on the state-of-the-art Northside Agriculture Innovation Center.

About 100 people gathered under a large canopy in the middle of an empty dirt lot where local politicians and community organizers highlighted the importance of the soon-to-be-built center as climate change continues to impact the Inland Empire’s food production industry.

“This center reinvents our agricultural practices,” Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said. “Riverside is showing the world how to lead with green and clean technology.”

Dawson explained that the project will be able to train 135 farm workers annually and is estimated to help launch 25 agricultural-based start-ups over the next decade.

Riverside, in partnership with more than two dozen community organizations, is set to construct the first phase of the facility on an 8.8-acre plot of land acquired in 2021. The center, located at 900 Clark St. in the city’s Northside neighborhood, would be dedicated to modeling new farming systems as agricultural industries look for climate-resilient solutions. The organizers also plan to use the center to train farmers and host community spaces. 

“It’s a learning center, not just for Riverside, but for the region and the country,” Joyce Jong, the center’s executive director, said. “It’s really important that we build resilience in communities.”

Jong said greenhouses, an open-air barn and areas to grow crops will be built by the end of the year. All three would be outfitted with solar panels to highlight new farm management techniques.

Fred Schwartz is a board member of Lamplighter Energy, an organization that has invested $4.2 million into creating the center’s solar technology. He said the agricultural hub would use semi-transparent solar panels as the roof for a majority of the structures. The panels would transmit around 45% of the sun’s light onto the crops to help protect them from extreme heat conditions. It would also create a safer environment for workers tending to the food.

The company has established similar designs for farms in South Korea and Hawaii. This facility in Riverside would be a first of its kind in the mainland United States, he said.

“Let’s be clear, this is about creating a pathway for youth to get into agriculture,” Schwartz said. “The type of agriculture that benefits them tremendously. Not working in fields, [but] working in greenhouses that make great food and keep them comfortable.”

Councilmember Philip Falcone, in a speech to the crowd, said that the plan is for the solar panels to not only power the center’s agricultural systems but to also return energy into the city’s grid.

Falcone also said trails will be built around the perimeter as well as a community garden during the first phase. The trail would be surrounded by 450 trees, including a variety of fruit trees like avocado, apple and apricot. 

“I don’t want us to rest on our laurels and claim victory by the groundbreaking of this, even once this has the ribbon cutting likely by the end of this calendar year,” Falcone said in an interview with The Riverside Record. “There’s still a lot more to do to realize the full vision of the project.”

The center has raised over $10 million for the first phase of the project according to Jong. It is likely that, by the end of the year, the majority of structures will be built.

However, Jong estimated the project would need to fundraise another $10 million to fully develop the second half of the project which includes adding office spaces, classrooms and a farm stand.