Planning a Community Hub for Agricultural Business and Tourism

From 2013-2017, Greenway Partners supported Redwood Acres Fairgrounds (RAF) in exploring a range of opportunities to establish a food and agricultural business and tourism hub on the Fairgrounds. After losing much of its operational funding from the State of California, RAF sought to repurpose many of its facilities to support local food and agriculture activities. RAF aquired some anchor tenants that rapidly grew successful enterprises. Building on this success, RAF staff and board worked to identify a common vision and plan for future development.

Greenway's work was supported by funds from Humboldt Area Foundation, a regional philanthropic organization, and a USDA grant received by AEDC, a local community development financial institution. The funds were used to develop a vision for Redwood Acres as a food and agriculture incubator, a recreational tourism destination, and a multi-use community facilities provider.

FEasibility studies and planning efforts forcused on the opportunities, barriers, market conditions and financial performance cold/dry storage facilities, specialty meat processing, community kitchens, artisan food retail, glamping and high-end RV camping, emergency support facilities, and more.

Redwood Acres established a vision to maintain its role as a community institution that supports agricultural and economic development - it is achieving that vision by working to become a self-sustaining operation that fills valuable needs in the community.

Greenway assisted with these efforts by providing planning, research and analysis, design, cost estimating, grant writing, and related services. These efforts included several planning and design workshops, input from dozens of community stakeholders, and cooridnation with funding agencies and government partners. Using the input received during the workshop, Philippe Lapotre, Architect, partnered with Greenway to lead a design workshop developing three conceptual site layouts with an emphasis on the food and agriculture hub concept.

Find a report summarizing Greenway's planning and design work at Redwood Acres here: RAF Planning Summary 

Review a summary of the food and agriculture design workshop here: Redwood Acres Planning and Design Workshop

Get a brief synopsis of the meat processing study here: Redwood Acres Specialty Meat Processing Overview

Read the full report on the specialty meat processing study here: Redwood Acres Specialty Meat Processing Feasibility Study Report