INDIANAPOLIS — Workers are turning an old warehouse in Indianapolis into an organic hydroponic farm that will soon begin producing basil, mustard greens and kale.

Toledo, Ohio-based Sustainable Local Foods is converting the 61,000-square-foot warehouse into an urban farm using technology it perfected — a tiered, organic hydroponic system to grow produce year-round to be sold in Indiana grocery stores.

The company worked with a local nonprofit, the Englewood Community Development Corp., to find a building in an area that’s in need of healthy food and the 11 jobs expected to be created by the project.

The warehouse is located on the city’s east side, an area the Obama administration has singled out as a prime place for redevelopment, The Indianapolis Star (http://indy.st/1hKk6LS ) reported. The community’s poverty rate is about 47 percent and its unemployment rate is about 24 percent.

“We like to repurpose what we consider to be underutilized buildings in communities where it can add real value,” company CEO Jim Bloom said.

This is Sustainable Local Foods’ third site, but its first in Indiana. The company was founded in 2012 in an effort to provide opportunities for people who find it difficult to get a job and to grow healthy, high-yield food.

Since then, Sustainable Local Foods produce has appeared on the shelves of major grocery stores like Kroger and Whole Foods.

“There’s a huge desire on the part of local stores to have a local crop,” Bloom said. “Once this is in place, we should have a very consistent weekly harvest that we can send to the stores.”

The company hasn’t finalized the details of where the produce will be sold, but it intends to have some of it available in the neighborhood, he said.

Numerous partners are collaborating with the company on the $1.28 million project, including the Englewood Community Development Corp., Indianapolis Power & Light Co.’s Business Energy Incentives Program, the Local Initiatives Support Corp. of Indianapolis, private donors and the city’s Department of Metropolitan Development.