Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans for a new $150 million infrastructure upgrade at the Hunts Point Market in the Bronx over the next 12 years to modernize the facility and give city residents access to more Empire-state grown produce.

De Blasio said this new investment will fortify a critical part of the city’s infrastructure: the food supply. “Ladies and gentlemen, you really want our food supply to be protected and fortified,” he said.

The mayor spoke on Thursday to the Association for a Better New York, a gathering of the city’s top flight business and community leaders.

The upgrade aims to modernize buildings at the 329-acre food distribution facility and add new businesses by creating new spaces. A nearby brownfield site will be cleaned up and 8,000 jobs will be protected. The plan also includes resiliency measures to protect the market from the effects of the next storm like Sandy.

De Blasio also called on the city’s business community to join the fight against income inequality, urging companies to hire more New Yorkers from all five boroughs and to voluntarily raise the minimum wage to over $13 an hour.

His wage proposal was greeted with brief and tepid applause.

Following the speech, Kathy Wylde, head of the business association Partnership for New York City, said leaders were receptive to the mayor’s overall concerns about income inequality and economic opportunity, but said, “I think that the ‘voluntarily’ is the operative word there” when asked about the wage hike.

De Blasio has also been urging Albany lawmakers to increase wages to more than $13 an hour.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed raising the city’s minimum wage to $11.50 an hour. His office has called the mayor’s $13 and up proposal a “non-starter.”