SPRINGFIELD -- Springfield-based economic development project Wellspring Collaborative plans to soon build a hydroponic greenhouse that would provide produce for area hospitals, grocery stores and school districts.

The burgeoning company, named Wellspring Harvest, will grow lettuce, greens and herbs year-round in the quarter-acre hydroponic greenhouse as soon as this fall, organization co-director Fred Rose said.

Baystate Health, Springfield Public Schools and Big Y supermarkets have committed to purchasing produce from Wellspring once it's up and running. Those stakeholders came together at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield Wednesday morning to talk about the project's progress.

"We gotta buy it anyway, so we might as well buy it local and buy it in a way that improves our community," said Frank Robinson, Baystate's vice president of community relations and public health.

Worcester Public Schools, River Valley Co-op in Northampton, Franklin Community Co-op, Squash Trucking of Belchertown and Friends of the Homeless in Springfield have also signed on as Wellspring Harvest purchasing partners.

Wellspring's goal is to create a network of worker-owned companies that will provide jobs for low-income Springfield residents, while simultaneously meeting purchasing needs of the region's largest buyers of goods and services -- mostly hospitals, colleges and universities.

The organization's five-year goal is to create more than 100 jobs through 10 worker-owned companies. Wellspring has a number of businesses in development, including a window workshop in Springfield, a laundromat in Greenfield and a landscaping and snow removal crew.

As with Wellspring's upholstery business -- which began two years ago and has six employees -- the greenhouse will be worker-owned. Employees who stay with the business for a year would be able to buy a share of the company.

Wellspring hasn't officially clinched a site for its greenhouse, but it's close; the organization signed a preferred developer agreement with the Springfield redevelopment Authority for 1.7 acres at the former location of Chapman Valve at 121 Pinevail St. The authority has asked Wellspring for an updated business plan that shows the greenhouse will be financially viable.

The greenhouse has been in the making for about five years. Kawano, Wellspring co-director, said Wellspring has looked seriously at two sites for the project.

"We feel like we've broken the log jam," Kawano said. "It's been a long road, and we've been down a number of dead ends, but things are finally moving very fast."

The greenhouse project will cost $900,000 overall, Rose said. The Local Enterprise Assistance Fund (LEAF) of Brookline has donated $200,000 to the cause, and Wellspring is seeking another $200,000 from private investors who are asked to give a minimum of $1,000 over five years.

Ideally, the greenhouse workers will be from Springfield's struggling neighborhoods, Kawano said, where entry-level jobs are most scarce. The greenhouse would start off with five employees.

Rose said Wellspring's produce will be chemical and pesticide free -- like organic, but without the organic price that comes with certification, he explained. Hydroponics use 10 percent of the water and 15 percent of the nutrients used in conventional agricultural, the organization said, and can yield 10 times the produce. The practice also eliminates the risk of soil contamination.

Wellspring and cooperatives like it are an increasingly popular way to develop business in communities hard hit by economic recession. According to Wellspring's research, less than 10 percent of the estimated $1.5 billion that local anchor institutions spend on goods and services goes to Springfield businesses.

Baystate has reviewed its various hospitals' menus to increase potential use of Wellspring's fruits and veggies, according to Matt Perpetua, Baystate Health's manager of supply chain and commissary operations.

In 2009, Baystate signed the Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge with the international coalition Health Care Without Harm. The pledge stipulates that participating institutions purchase 20 percent of their food locally by year 2020. Wellspring's greenhouse will help the hospital group achieve that, said Nancy Robinson, director of patient and guest services for Baystate.

Big Y supermarkets, founded in Springfield 80 years ago, says it will also buy produce from Wellspring. One of the company's marketing strategies is to find farms that resonate with customers on a hyper-local level, said Sean Stolanic, Big Y's locally grown sales manager.

"This is a good opportunity to see that the produce is from their own town," Stolanic said of Big Y's Springfield residents.

Springfield Public Schools, which has committed to buying Wellspring produce for its cafeteria meals, donated a small startup grant to get the greenhouse project started.

"The district is committed to providing fresh fruits and vegetables in all its food programs," said Timothy Gray, food service manager for the schools. "For the first time, we'll be able to serve local produce on a year-round basis."

Those interested in supporting the project can visit http://www.wellspring.coop or email wellspringharvestcoop@gmail.com.