It’s hard to conjure stacks of fresh produce in an old tofu plant strewn with rodent traps, paint cans and office junk. But the dusty site in Watsonville is only about two weeks from becoming operational – and from propelling a Salinas nonprofit distributor’s sales to aspirational levels. 


“This is the bomb right here,” says Tony Serrano, general manager for ALBA Organics, the retail wing launched by Agriculture and Land-Based Training in 2002. He points at one of the three loading docks in the 8,000-square-foot space: “This is the kind of stuff we need to operate.”


With about 40 farmers today growing more produce than ALBA Organics can sell – up to $200,000 of peak summer’s unsold bounty goes to the worms, and growers improve their yields every year – their 1970s Salinas cooler is bursting at the seams.


Alfred Navarro, who took the reins as ALBA’s interim director in July after the ouster of former longtime director Brett Melone, says the new site presents a strategic win. “It was ideal for us in terms of complementing what we have at the farm,” he says. 


The Salinas cooler will remain operational, but by adding a shift and keeping the new facility open 24 hours, everything will be consolidated at the Watsonville site nightly. The location also presents a logistical benefit, since it’s an hour closer to ALBA’s primary market in Silicon Valley and the S.F. Bay area. 


Though Navarro won’t disclose how much the new cooler costs, he says ALBA Organics is on track to have a self-sustaining cash flow within a couple of years. He plans to slow its rapid 50-percent growth rate to about 30 percent next year, shooting for $3 million in annual sales, with hopes to sustain $4 million beyond that.


ALBA will lease half the building, and El Pájaro Community Development Corporation will occupy the other portion with a commercial kitchen incubator, slated to open by spring of 2012 and provide a code-compliant food prep and cooking area to up-and-coming entrepreneurs. 


With the help of a $90,000 grant from the federal Small Business Administration, El Pájaro is raising another $300,000 toward capital-intensive hoods, stoves and refrigerators – pricey items that often stop would-be business owners from getting off the ground, according to board president Jorge Reguerin.


Watsonville’s economic development manager, Kurt Overmeyer, says food businesses using the incubator are poised to succeed, even though the city has seen major processing plants, like Green Giant and Birds Eye, take off for areas with lower rents and cheaper labor. 


In the past decade, Overmeyer says, sporting goods and dietary supplement manufacturers have filled in where large food processors left off, but he still sees a niche opportunity: “There is a place for a high-end, boutique market, as more people get involved in slow food and organic food.” 


El Pájaro already has 15 bakers, picklers and cooks signed up to use its incubator. Many aren’t using organic ingredients today, but there’s potential for purchasing from adjacent ALBA. “Putting together partnerships like this,” Overmeyer says, “that’s the best way cities can do things.”