Family-Run Dairy To Open Distribution Center In Southeast Queens

SPRINGFIELD GARDENS, QUEENS — A Queens-based dairy company is moving its distribution center from New Jersey to a city-owned manufacturing site by JFK Airport, the NYC Economic Development Corporation announced.

Bartlett Dairy will open the 54,000-square-foot facility in fall 2020 as its home base for delivering milk to New York City schools and local Starbucks shops.

The move is expected to create up to 90 construction jobs and 165 permanent jobs with an average salary of $70,000, the city said.

Bartlett's distribution center will fill a void left by the 2016 closure of the Elmhurst Dairy plant in Jamaica. That closure put 273 people out of work, The New York Times reported.

"We are excited to be returning home to the birthplace of Bartlett Dairy," Bartlett Dairy president Thomas Malave Jr. said. "We look forward to our continued growth in conjunction with the local community."

The family-run dairy will set up a scholarship fund for graduating local high school students to celebrate the move, Malave Jr. said.

"The return of Bartlett Dairy to Queens is bringing jobs back to the borough where so many workers call home," City Council Member Donovan Richards said. "This development is an all-around win for Southeast Queens."

The city approved Bartlett's land-use application for the site last week. Members of the Queens Borough Board, chaired by Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, will vote on the application Monday.