Philip Morris USA to develop warehouse complex in Chesterfield County

Philip Morris USA plans to spend more than $50 million establishing  a tobacco leaf storage warehouse complex on 118 acres in the Meadowville area of Chesterfield County.

The company, the cigarette division of Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc., will lease four buildings totaling 1 million square feet to be built off of Bermuda Hundred Road.

The structures are being built by a development team including USAA and Seefried Industrial Development.

The complex will not result in any new Altria employees. Management of the warehouse complex will be contracted out, with 15 to 30 workers onsite.

The warehouse complex will store raw materials used in making tobacco products. The facility will consolidate materials currently being stored at various locations in the Richmond area.

“This strategic Chesterfield County location will allow us convenient access to our manufacturing facilities and complement our existing storage and production activities,” Cliff Fleet, the president and CEO of Philip Morris USA, said in a statement.

Philip Morris USA expects the warehouse complex to be operational next year.

Altria employs nearly 4,000 people at six facilities in the Richmond area. More than half of the cigarettes produced in the U.S. are made in its manufacturing center in South Richmond.

Chesterfield Economic Development, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Greater Richmond Partnership, Seefried Industrial Development, Richmond-based engineering firm Timmons Group and the commercial real estate firm CBRE assisted Philip Morris USA in the site selection process.