Plenty Unlimited’s indoor farm in Meadowville Technology Park. (Jack Jacobs photo)
Shortly after California-based Plenty Unlimited sowed the first strawberries at its new indoor farm in Chesterfield, a legal battle has sprouted up over the facility’s construction process.
Mechanicsville subcontractor Electrical Controls & Maintenance filed a lawsuit earlier this month seeking nearly $8 million it says it is owed for work on the indoor growing facility in Meadowville Technology Park.
ECM, according to its attorney Tom Wolf of law firm O’Hagan Meyer, has stopped working on the project and has asked a judge to order the sale of the property to drum up proceeds for what it claims it’s owed.
Plenty, as well as its landlord, California-based Realty Income Properties, are listed as defendants in the lawsuit. Also named as a defendant is the farming facility’s general contractor, Whiting-Turner, which ECM claims is in breach of contract.
ECM was tapped by Whiting-Turner in August 2023 to handle electrical work for new grow rooms planned as part of the latest phase of the facility at 13500 N. Enon Church Road, where the first strawberries for commercial distribution were recently planted. That phase of construction is referred to in the legal filing as the Plenty Farm 2 project.
ECM claims in the Jan. 10 complaint that it is owed $7.7 million, with interest, for work completed from August to November 2024. It claims it has “repeatedly” submitted invoices seeking payment to no avail, per the filing made in Chesterfield Circuit Court.
The defendants hadn’t filed responses to the lawsuit as of Tuesday morning. Realty Income and Plenty didn’t respond to inquiries from BizSense seeking comment.
The Plenty facility seemed to be operational Tuesday morning, though there didn’t appear to be any active construction taking place at the site by that time.
ECM is seeking a judgment to enforce a mechanic’s lien on the 22-acre property and is just one of several firms involved in work on the facility that have filed liens on the property. Whiting-Turner claims it is owed nearly $13 million for its work on the expansion. Montpelier-based C.T. Purcell Excavating, Glen Allen-based Century Construction Co., ColonialWebb in Henrico, Chester-based New Market Asphalt Corp. and Liphart Steel in Richmond have also in the last several months made lien filings stating they’re owed money for work on the property, according to court records. Only ECM had filed a full-on lawsuit in Chesterfield Circuit Court as of Tuesday morning.
Matt Lohr, Virginia’s secretary of agriculture and forestry, addresses the crowd during the summer 2023 groundbreaking ceremony for the Plenty indoor farm. (BizSense file)
When the Plenty project was announced in September 2022, the West Coast startup laid out a vision for a $300 million, multi-facility campus on up to 120 acres at Meadowville. Plenty has said the campus would grow 20 million pounds of produce annually and employ 300 people at full buildout.
Plenty opened the first, and so far only, indoor farm on the campus in the fall, following a groundbreaking for the project in summer 2023. The company described it as a 100,000-square-foot facility with 40,000 square feet of growing space ahead of the sowing of the first strawberry crop late last year. The farm was designed to use 30-foot-tall, indoor towers to grow strawberries, and have the ability to control light, temperature and humidity through proprietary software.
ECM worked on the project’s initial phase in addition to the second phase, the latter of which kicked off in November 2023.
Plenty said in a LinkedIn post in December 2024 it had planted its first strawberries slated for commercial distribution at the local facility, which it calls Plenty Richmond Farm, earlier in the month, and that the company planned to have its first harvest in early 2025.
In that social media post, Plenty announced it was shutting down an indoor farming facility in Compton, California, that grew leafy greens. The company said that the “rising cost” of operating in California, including energy prices, was a factor, as was a desire to focus its attention on growing strawberries.
Plenty Unlimited’s indoor farm in Meadowville Technology Park. (Jack Jacobs photo)
Shortly after California-based Plenty Unlimited sowed the first strawberries at its new indoor farm in Chesterfield, a legal battle has sprouted up over the facility’s construction process.
Mechanicsville subcontractor Electrical Controls & Maintenance filed a lawsuit earlier this month seeking nearly $8 million it says it is owed for work on the indoor growing facility in Meadowville Technology Park.
ECM, according to its attorney Tom Wolf of law firm O’Hagan Meyer, has stopped working on the project and has asked a judge to order the sale of the property to drum up proceeds for what it claims it’s owed.
Plenty, as well as its landlord, California-based Realty Income Properties, are listed as defendants in the lawsuit. Also named as a defendant is the farming facility’s general contractor, Whiting-Turner, which ECM claims is in breach of contract.
ECM was tapped by Whiting-Turner in August 2023 to handle electrical work for new grow rooms planned as part of the latest phase of the facility at 13500 N. Enon Church Road, where the first strawberries for commercial distribution were recently planted. That phase of construction is referred to in the legal filing as the Plenty Farm 2 project.
ECM claims in the Jan. 10 complaint that it is owed $7.7 million, with interest, for work completed from August to November 2024. It claims it has “repeatedly” submitted invoices seeking payment to no avail, per the filing made in Chesterfield Circuit Court.
The defendants hadn’t filed responses to the lawsuit as of Tuesday morning. Realty Income and Plenty didn’t respond to inquiries from BizSense seeking comment.
The Plenty facility seemed to be operational Tuesday morning, though there didn’t appear to be any active construction taking place at the site by that time.
ECM is seeking a judgment to enforce a mechanic’s lien on the 22-acre property and is just one of several firms involved in work on the facility that have filed liens on the property. Whiting-Turner claims it is owed nearly $13 million for its work on the expansion. Montpelier-based C.T. Purcell Excavating, Glen Allen-based Century Construction Co., ColonialWebb in Henrico, Chester-based New Market Asphalt Corp. and Liphart Steel in Richmond have also in the last several months made lien filings stating they’re owed money for work on the property, according to court records. Only ECM had filed a full-on lawsuit in Chesterfield Circuit Court as of Tuesday morning.
Matt Lohr, Virginia’s secretary of agriculture and forestry, addresses the crowd during the summer 2023 groundbreaking ceremony for the Plenty indoor farm. (BizSense file)
When the Plenty project was announced in September 2022, the West Coast startup laid out a vision for a $300 million, multi-facility campus on up to 120 acres at Meadowville. Plenty has said the campus would grow 20 million pounds of produce annually and employ 300 people at full buildout.
Plenty opened the first, and so far only, indoor farm on the campus in the fall, following a groundbreaking for the project in summer 2023. The company described it as a 100,000-square-foot facility with 40,000 square feet of growing space ahead of the sowing of the first strawberry crop late last year. The farm was designed to use 30-foot-tall, indoor towers to grow strawberries, and have the ability to control light, temperature and humidity through proprietary software.
ECM worked on the project’s initial phase in addition to the second phase, the latter of which kicked off in November 2023.
Plenty said in a LinkedIn post in December 2024 it had planted its first strawberries slated for commercial distribution at the local facility, which it calls Plenty Richmond Farm, earlier in the month, and that the company planned to have its first harvest in early 2025.
In that social media post, Plenty announced it was shutting down an indoor farming facility in Compton, California, that grew leafy greens. The company said that the “rising cost” of operating in California, including energy prices, was a factor, as was a desire to focus its attention on growing strawberries.
This is so disappointing. I was so looking forward to seeing the success of greenhouse farming in Virginia ala the production the Dutch see in Europe, My disappointment is acerbated by the liens and debts of so many local contractors. They’ll be the ones crushed when this “agri-giant” declares Chapter 11 and its Wall Street financiers write off the losses. No politicians will be there to celebrate with them.
I had high hopes on this too. I’m a big fan of the hydroponic lettuces that are local and looked forward to more options. I hope this is only individual mismanagement on their part and not an overall issue with the concept/system. It’s awful for our local contractors to get holding the bag like this too.
Yes I hate it when contractors get burned too. While I am also a fan of the Dutch and their greenhousing and greenhousing in general – I don’t think this is greenhouse farming but rather “Indoor farming” which is a general part of “urban farming” which has been proven to work in theory but not often in-practice, like so many “change the world schemes” — people act surprised when it turns out the reason things are done more in the “old ways” were done that way for a reason — again and again, it has turned out that growing crops… Read more »
Iceland has a surprisingly robust plant farm community – indoors! The abundance of volcanic activity has allowed it to grow things like potatoes for centuries, and they’ve been growing tomatoes, lettuces, peppers and more in greenhouses since 1924. It’s not necessarily reinventing the wheel.
Iceland is rather unique, don’t you think? They have endless geothermal energy, so who needs to worry about heat or electricity to power the LEDs?
Meanwhile, they don’t have our sunlight, but they do have those natural hottubs that remain steamy in the middle of their subartic winters.
It is, but that’s not the point. You can feed people with greenhouses and alternative energy.
Yes — as I have said elsewhere I am very impressed with what the Dutch are able to do with their cloudy days — but indoor urban farming? Better ways to make money. Lots of better ways, then you can buy all the arugala and sprouts you want.
Called this one too. But the coterie of cheerleaders in the echo chamber would rather prioritize placing their “positivity” on display than make a sober assessment.
I am one who THOROUGHLY believes in listening to cranks and trolls and not just the pollyannas about various things, so I am glad to see your contributions. Just know that, unless we are ourselves a brand of a point of view and not a brand of Truth — it isn’t good to be TOO predictable — then you get accused of being the “stopped clock being correct twice a day.” I expressed some skepticism here too, but was pretty confident that the big players involved had done their math — from how this article reads, the problem might not… Read more »
So many local contractors not getting paid is not good.
It would shock me if all of the subcontractors listed above did not have a contract with the General Contractor and not the owner/end user. Very rarely do subs work directly for the owner. I suspect WT must have a “pay when paid” clause in their subcontracts. I don’t like seeing Whiting Turner get burned either but typically it would be their responsibility to vet the end users financial ability to pay as opposed to the sub-contractors. The ones listed above are the big ones but it’s not practical for the painting contractor or landscaping contractor to have to evaluate… Read more »
Yet another government supported boondoggle.
This seems like it’s pretty squarely in the private sphere…
PLENTY of state funds committed and since jobs were created, I am sure they got the funds. From Gov. press release…Governor Youngkin approved a $2.4 million grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund, as well as a $500,000 grant from the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund to assist Chesterfield County in winning this project for Virginia. The company is eligible to receive benefits from the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Zone Grant Program, as well as the Major Business Facility Job Tax Credit for new, full-time jobs created.
Seemed like an awful expensive way to grow strawberries. Cant believe investors, media and government fell for this. If someone says they are “re-imagining” the way you do time tested, inexpensive processes like farming, lighting, car sales… is being done, its probably hype..
Yes —- I totally agree — you see words like that, it implies an IDEOLOGICAL component and should make one ask harder questions and demand more numbers and have them checked by the more skeptical experts.
Unfortunately our company has also not received payment for work that was performed and are also seeking action as well. Very upsetting and sad to screw over local contractors and businesses, especially when big shot Govenor Youngkin came to town and visited this site and endorsed Plenty Inc.
Fighting Joe was at the groundbreaking too!
As a share-holder of Realty Income Properties, I sincerely hope this is just a mix-up and our local contractors get their money. Otherwise, I need to revisit my portfolio and adjust for risk.
Interesting that they used local contractors, likely all of which probably have no previous work experience with Plenty or Realty Income. I’m willing to bet they’ve done this to others, in other states.
Perhaps our state government failed to learn the real reason that the company was leaving sunny California? The company blamed it on high taxes and the liberals, which made wonderful bait for the new administration, bragging about his conservative policies. Maybe it was something else?
Well, perhaps you remember that guy Terry he ran against (the guy Stoney used to be a creature of) — the Chinese ripped him off so many times I was starting to think he enjoyed it.