Dietz & Watson bringing $50 million food campus to Tacony

Dietz & Watson intends to relocate a warehouse from New Jersey to Philadelphia, bringing jobs to the Tacony neighborhood.

The $50 million project will create a refrigerated warehouse on 20 acres in Tacony next to the current Dietz & Watson headquarters facility.  Alan Greenberger, Philadelphia’s deputy mayor for economic development, said the deal represents the result of eight months of negotiations.Those talks involved “a very complicated real estate transaction that will enable them to acquire 20 acres of land next to their existing plant on Tacony Street to build a new refrigerated facility that will make their operation more efficient,”  Greenberger said. “It will bring at least 110 jobs back from New Jersey into Philadelphia and will allow them to grow on a consolidated industrial campus.”The project will be more than just a replacement warehouse for the one that burned down in New Jersey a year ago, said Louis Eni, CEO of Dietz & Watson.”This is kind of a dream come true,” Eni said. “We were looking at the property next to us 10 years ago before we built a distribution center in Delanco, but it wasn’t available.”Pennsylvania is putting up about $7 million in incentives to bring the facility to town. Meanwhile, Philadelphia officials assembled the tract of land at a cost of $6 million, but hope to recoup those costs in the transaction.  The warehouse is expected to be operational by sometime next year.