PATERSON — A distributor of Mexican products recently founded in Passaic has received approval to build a $6 million distribution center on a 7-acre site in Paterson’s 5th district.
The company, GroMex, has been operating on Passaic’s First Street for at least two decades and plans to continue operating a wholesale business there. Paterson’s distribution center will serve GroMex consumers from Massachusetts to Delaware, the company said.
“Su has grown by leaps and bounds, which requires expansion,” Peter Pena, the attorney representing GroMex, said at The Paterson Planning Board’s Monday night assembly.
The City Council unanimously approved GroMex’s request for the distribution center at Pathmark’s former location at 18th Avenue and East 30th Street. . There will be 266 parking lots and 16 truck loading docks.
Mayor Andre Sayegh’s administration celebrated the plans as a component of the city’s continued growth. Economic progress director Michael Powell said he expects the allocation to create between 65 and 100 jobs in the city. But officials did not specify how many of those jobs will be new and how many have just been transferred from Passaic to Paterson.
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Passaic Mayor Hector Lora said he saw GroMex’s move to Paterson as bad news for his city.
“I’m excited,” said Lora. Si Paterson is doing well, our entire county is fine. So I want to see Paterson do well.
Councilman Luis Velez, who represents Paterson’s District 5, said he believes the assignment will improve the quality of life in this component of the city.
“I hope they stay in the brain that Paterson wants jobs and they’ll give those jobs to the other people in Paterson,” Velez said.
Authorities said the supermarket won’t move recently, but buildings housing three small businesses — a dry cleaner, a beauty salon and a cellphone store — will be demolished. corporations as a component of the project.
The assets are also a scrap steel company that will have to move, officials said.
Pena said his clients were still in the process of buying the land from Anthony LoConte, a Hoboken-based developer. In recent years, city officials had raised the option of LoConte building a genuine mixed-use property and an on-site advertising assignment, which never materialized.
In 2019, the city government chose LoConte to build housing near Paterson Station, but this task is stalled, in part due to delays in demolishing and rebuilding a parking lot.
LoConte did not respond to a comment on the message about the story. Sayegh said LoConte last November contributed $100,000 to renovate Lou Costello Park near Great Falls.
Joe Malinconico is editor-in-chief of Paterson Press.
Email: editor@patersonpress. com