Despite bankruptcy, Plenty to finish Chesterfield vertical indoor farms

Despite filing for bankruptcy in March, Plenty Unlimited will be able to finish construction of its vertical indoor farm facility in Chesterfield County.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher M. Lopez approved on Wednesday a restructuring plan for Plenty and its subsidiaries that will let it complete its vertical farm facility on 120 acres in Chesterfield’s Meadowville Technology Park. San Francisco-based agricultural tech company Plenty Unlimited in March filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Plenty opened the first farm on its Chesterfield campus at 13500 North Enon Church Road in September 2024. It’s designed to produce more than 4 million pounds of strawberries annually in less than 40,000 square feet by growing the fruit vertically on 30-foot towers. Chesterfield Economic Development Director Garrett Hart confirmed Friday that Plenty is in position to complete the remaining four farms in its existing building. Construction will begin in August.

Anthony R. Grossi, an attorney with Sidley Austin representing Plenty, said Wednesday during a bankruptcy court proceeding: “We stand here ready to confirm a Chapter 11 plan with nearly 100% creditor support, a global settlement from our creditors’ committee, complete consensus from our construction counterparties to complete the buildout of our Richmond facility and committed capital to fund our operations for the foreseeable future.”

Fifty-two days earlier, “when we filed these cases, we had asserted liens against our Richmond facility. … In addition to the asserted liens, work had completely stopped on the buildout of that facility because of unpaid invoices,” Grossi said.

Baltimore-based general contractor The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. had filed a mechanic’s lien against Plenty, its Virginia subsidiary and landowner Realty Income Properties 9 in Chesterfield County Circuit Court in March. Contractor Electrical Controls & Maintenance, based in Mechanicsville, filed a mechanic’s lien against Whiting-Turner, Realty Income Properties 9 and Plenty’s Virginia limited liability company in January. Richmond-based contractor Century Construction Co. also filed a lien against Realty Income Properties 9, Plenty Unlimited and Plenty’s Virginia subsidiary in March.

As part of the plan, “we have our Virginia Mechanic’s Lien class who negotiated for a higher recovery than was originally proposed, and who have also committed, as we’ve said, to complete the buildout of our Richmond facility. Our plan also includes a global settlement and release with respect to our general contractor, Whiting-Turner, and the debtors’ landlord,” Grossi said.

In December 2024, Plenty announced plans to close its Compton, California, leafy greens farm, citing challenges stemming from the high cost of doing business in California, including expensive energy prices. The Chesterfield facility is Plenty’s only operating facility, Grossi said during the proceeding Wednesday.

The Virginia farm exclusively grows strawberries for California-based Driscoll’s, the world’s largest berry distributor. The Chesterfield indoor farm has had berries in market since January, a Plenty spokesperson said in March.

When Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced the project in 2022, Plenty planned to invest $300 million to create the vertical farm campus in Chesterfield, creating 300 jobs. The company said in a news release then that it planned “to deploy several large-scale vertical farms on the campus in the coming years, with a potential annual production capacity exceeding 20 million pounds across multiple crops including strawberries, leafy greens and tomatoes.”

A Plenty spokesperson was out of office on Friday when Virginia Business sought additional information.