EDA: Headquarters relocation never became a food fight with N.Y.

February 07. 2012 2:02PM

EDA: Headquarters relocation never became a food fight with N.Y.

Published reports that Fresh Direct turned down a $100 million offer from the Economic Development Authority to move its operations to New Jersey are incorrect, according to an EDA spokeswoman, who said the agency hadn't decided whether to approve tax credits for the online grocer.

The New York Times and New York Daily News reported that Fresh Direct rejected the EDA's offer of $100 million in incentives to move its headquarters from Queens, N.Y., to Jersey City, but the EDA said no such offer was ever on the table.

In November 2011, the agency said it received an application from Fresh Direct under the Urban Transit Hub program, the $1.5 billion program that awards tax credits for projects near train stations in nine New Jersey cities, including Jersey City. EDA spokeswoman Erin Gold said the agency was still in the process of reviewing Fresh Direct's application when the company agreed to spend $112 million to build its new headquarters in the Bronx, and accepted an offer from New York for $130 million in grants, tax breaks and tax credits.

“The (Chris) Christie administration has worked to improve the overall business climate of the state, and we would have loved to welcome another company to the growing list of businesses that have chosen to call New Jersey home as a result," Gold said in a prepared statement.

Fresh Direct said in published reports it hopes to open the 500,000-square-foot facility at the Harlem River Rail Yard by 2015, and create 1,000 jobs by 2020.