IMAGE COURTESY OF AMERICAN FAST FREIGHT

Earlier this year, American Fast Freight (AFF) leased property to George Richter Farms for the purpose of growing berries. Because of a new deadline on a construction project, AFF had to exercise a 90-day termination clause to end the lease 30 days before the crops were to be harvested. AFF plans to build a trucking terminal on the parcel.

Farmer yields to freight company

By Meghan Erkkinen

A Fife farm has agreed to sacrifice about 20 acres of late-season raspberries and blackberries, as well as some pumpkins, to make way for the development of the site.

American Fast Freight (AFF) leased the site earlier this year to George Richter Farms, Inc. The lease was scheduled to expire at the end of this month, in time for farm workers to bring in the crops, but AFF exercised a 90-day termination clause in May in order to continue with development of the property.

The scheduled start date for construction was Aug. 25, but as the date approached, Richter Farms and farmer Jake Sterino, who took over the operation after George Richter died earlier this spring, began petitioning for 30 more days to bring in the crops. Soon, media reports generated sympathy for Sterino and Richter Farms and negative press for AFF. The parties agreed to sit down to talk.

It was at that meeting, on Aug. 27, that Sterino yielded to the transportation company. In a statement following the meeting, he said he decided not to pursue an extended legal battle and apologized to customers for the shortage of their pumpkin crop and the end of the berry season.

According to Richter Farms estimates prior to the agreement, construction on the site would mean the loss of $275,000 worth of produce and the immediate termination of 75 seasonal jobs.

Mike Schuller, vice president of marketing for AFF, said the property was originally leased to George Richter as a favor.

“It’s our property, it’s not farmland,” he said. “It was bought three or four years ago. It was zoned commercial property.”

The company received minimal profit from the lease – only $3,000 for the entire season, he said.

AFF needed the site immediately to begin work on a trucking terminal. It was necessary to begin in August to take advantage of the dry soil, he said. If they waited a month, it would mean an additional expense of $1 million to bring in the soil they needed.

“We’re a company that has been a good tenant of Pierce County and the city of Fife for a number of years,” he said. “If we had not exercised the clause, we would have been out almost $1 million in initial sunken cost.”

Now, another question looms for Richter Farms. Sterino, when he took over the farm, agreed to bring this year’s berries in, and he did. But with the loss of this site and, more importantly, the potential loss of the Brookville Gardens site off of Valley Avenue, which the city plans on turning into a park, Sterino said he is not sure about the future of Richter Farms.

“If they decide to put the park in next year, George Richter Farms will probably not continue,” he said. “We don’t want to be put into that same position as this year. If they say no (to extending the lease) then we’re going to have to be yanking more stuff out.”

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