Dive Brief:

• Mondelez International is making plans to close the Kraft plant at the intersection of Roosevelt Boulevard and Byberry Road in Northeast Philadelphia.
• The boxy design of the Kraft plant (pictured here), as well as the smell it emits of Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers, have defined the Somerton and Bustelton neighborhoods for generations.
• The company is in talks with the Bakery, Tobacco and Confectionary Workers' Union about shutting the facility. More than 300 people work at the plant.

Dive Insight: 

In New York City, consuming an entire city block between West 15th and 16th Streets and 9th and 10th Avenues, stands the Chelsea Market -- a foodie paradise of shops and restaurants and the studios of the Food Network -- built in the shell of the once-derelict National Biscuit Company factory from the late 1800s. It was there that the Oreo was born. Perhaps some day the former industrial area of Northwest Philly will undergo a similar renaissance. We can only hope. But any such change will take decades. When the National Biscuit left New York, its complex deteriorated -- eventually becoming a squatter's haven and crime den in the 1970s. Here's hoping that Northeast Philadelphia can be reborn in a quicker, and less disturbing fashion.