Surrounding nearly every suburban business center and office park are swaths of manicured grass, occasionally interrupted by ornamental landscaping. Unlike green space at schools or residential complexes, it’s rare to see this outdoor space used for recreation or sunbathing. In fact, it isn’t really used for anything.
Up Top Acres, an agricultural startup based in Washington, D.C., is looking to change that. The company designs, installs and maintains raised-bed gardens at corporate centers and on urban high-rise rooftops, planting edible crops for tenants and local food pantries. So far, Up Top Acres has installed gardens in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, New Jersey and now Pennsylvania.
As of April, there are three Philadelphia-area sites: Radnor Financial Center, Radnor Corporate Center and 620 Freedom Business Center in King of Prussia. All are managed by the Philadelphia-based real estate firm Brandywine Realty Trust.
Ron Becker, senior vice president of operations and sustainability for Brandywine Realty Trust, first encountered Up Top Acres a decade ago while working in Washingon, D.C. After joining Brandywine Realty Trust, he saw an opportunity to collaborate with them again. In his opinion, the benefits of activating the properties’ green spaces far outweigh the cost of establishing and maintaining the gardens.
“It is another way, as a committed environmentally sustainable company, to engage with our tenants and bring fresh produce right inside our buildings,” he says. “Here, it’s less than 1,500 feet — not the United States average of 1,500 miles — from farm to table.”
Here, it’s less than 1,500 feet — not the United States average of 1,500 miles — from farm to table.”
— Ron Becker, Brandywine Realty Trust
Up Top Acres was founded in 2014 by Kristof Grina, Kathleen O’Keefe and Nick Berini, who wanted to apply their agricultural and soil science backgrounds to urban settings. With scarce access to land in cities, they realized commercial properties held untapped potential.
“There are all these large areas just sitting vacant, and we created a model of integrating small farms and gardens into the buildings themselves, growing food and then distributing it to the people living or working in those buildings,” Grina says. “Now, our gardens are everyone’s favorite amenity and give buildings a way to differentiate themselves from other properties.”
This summer, the Up Top Acres sites in the Philly ‘burbs grew greens, radishes, tomatoes, herbs and more. Half the harvest — around 2,000 pounds from the three combined sites, Grina estimates — was donated to the Upper Merion Community Cupboard. Every two weeks, harvest tables were set up in the buildings’ lobbies, where workers could take whatever they wanted for free. People from different departments and companies chatted and mingled while perusing the tables — a nice break from their offices and a chance to get to know neighbors in the building.
“There are so many health and wellness benefits to having these vegetables grown on-site,” says Becker. “Not only does it reduce the carbon footprint of the produce, but [it] create[s] access for busy people. Our tenants are lined up at noon to get in on the action.”
Up Top Acres hopes to establish more sites in the region, including in Center City Philadelphia. Maybe by this time next year, a handful of rooftop farms will be quietly growing above the busy city streets.
