Bowery Farms in south Bethlehem closes, lays off 100 workers

Bowery Farms, which opened an indoor commercial farm on a former Bethlehem Steel site to great fanfare more than two years ago, has apparently shut down operations.

A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification was issued for its location at 1025 Feather Way in south Bethlehem. Federal law requires employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of a closing or mass layoff.

The WARN notice affects 104 workers and went into effect Nov. 1.

According to news reports, Bowery has decided to shut down its entire company, which also had locations in Nottingham, Maryland, and Kearny, New Jersey.

Data research company PitchBook first reported the closure and said the company at its peak was valued at $2.3 billion and raised more than $700 million in venture capital from investors such as Fidelity Management & Research Co. and GV (formerly Google Ventures).

PitchBook said Bowery was already facing problems in 2023 as its valuation was plummeting and it conducted several rounds of layoffs.

Bowery opened a 156,000-square-foot building in Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII that sat on 9 acres in May 2022.

"I am glad to be at a warehouse I can actually stand in front of and be really happy about it," Northampton County Executive Lamont G. McClure said during an opening ceremony for the state's first commercial indoor farm. Then-Gov. Tom Wolf and Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds were also on hand.

The state contributed more than $450,000 in grants and tax credits to boost the company's operations.