Plenty Unlimited’s indoor farm facility at Meadowville Technology Park. (Photos courtesy Plenty Unlimited)
The first phase of a massive indoor farming complex in Chesterfield County is now ready for its first sowing season.
California-based Plenty Unlimited planned to plant its first crop of strawberries this month at its new 100,000-square-foot facility at 13500 N. Enon Church Road, according to a company spokeswoman.
The facility, which is part of Meadowville Technology Park, has nearly 40,000 square feet of growing space, and is planned to produce more than 4 million pounds of strawberries every year, the company said.
The rest of the building includes other agriculture-related facilities, storage, shipping areas and offices.
The berries will grow on 30-foot-tall towers inside the facility. Plenty says its Chesterfield location is the world’s first indoor, vertical farm to grow berries at scale.
Plenty declined to share how much the first farm cost to build. Whiting-Turner was tapped to serve as the facility’s general contractor. Architecture firm Jacobs and local engineering outfit Timmons Group also participated in the project.
The company said that a team of 60 is expected to staff the facility, but wouldn’t comment on how many people had been hired as of last week.
The first strawberries from the farm, which are being grown for produce brand Driscoll’s, are expected to hit the Northeast U.S. market in early 2025. Plenty held a ceremony last week to mark the start of operations at the facility.
Dubbed the Plenty Richmond Farm, the facility is able to control light, temperature and humidity through proprietary software and uses artificial intelligence to analyze data related to the growth of the crops. The company says it uses a patent-pending method of controlled airflow to pollinate the plants.
“The Plenty Richmond Farm is the culmination of 200 research trials over the past six years to perfect growing strawberries with consistent peak-season flavor indoors year-round. Driscoll’s sets an incredibly high bar for the quality of its berries and we’re excited to join forces to consistently deliver an ultra-premium Driscoll’s strawberry year-round,” Plenty CEO Arama Kukutai said in a prepared statement.
The first-phase farm is the start of what’s envisioned as a $300 million, multi-farm complex on a 120-acre campus.
The complex is expected to have a total workforce of more than 300 people, and have the capacity to grow more than 20 million pounds of produce annually at full buildout.
An example of the 30-foot-tall towers on which berries will grow at Plenty’s new Chesterfield facility. The pictured tower was photographed at Plenty’s San Francisco headquarters.
Prior to the project’s groundbreaking in July 2023, California-based Realty Income Properties acquired the 22-acre Enon Church Road site from the Chesterfield Economic Development Authority. The EDA owns the rest of the land being eyed for the remainder of the Plenty campus, with plans to sell portions of it over time to Realty Income as the development takes shape.
In early 2023, Realty Income and Plenty announced a partnership in which the REIT would buy land and provide funding for development for indoor farms that Plenty would operate on long-term leases.
Plenty was founded in 2014 and is based in San Francisco. The company last year opened an indoor vertical farm in Compton, California, that grows lettuce. It also has a research facility in Wyoming.
The company announced plans this summer to build an indoor strawberry farm in Abu Dhabi, which is expected to be completed in 2026 and would supply markets in the Middle East.
In other Meadowville Tech Park news, Danish manufacturer Topsoe recently secured the site of its upcoming factory in the industrial park. And Data center company Chirisa is expanding its existing presence in the park.