AeroFarms works toward sale of Pittsylvania location; closure delayed

The fat lady hasn’t sung yet for AeroFarms’ Pittsylvania County location.

Executives at two companies, New AeroFarms and AeroFarms Danville Farming, are courting a potential buyer for Ringgold‘s AeroFarms indoor vertical farming business, according to a Feb. 27 letter sent to Danville Mayor Alonzo Jones.

In the letter, AeroFarms Vice President of Human Resources Carlos Nuñez said a lender has agreed to provide additional short-term funding to continue core operations at the facility “for a period of time.” If the transaction fails to close in March or AeroFarms is unable to obtain additional funding “to pursue other strategic options,” the facility could close between March 17 and March 31.

A closure would mean the company’s remaining 145 employees would lose their jobs. Of those, 115 employees are Virginia residents. A small number of employees could be asked to continue working for a short period to wind down operations, the letter stated.

A group of 13 primarily remote employees, which includes positions such as head grower and senior mechanical engineer, have been furloughed since Dec. 19, 2025. Four Virginia residents are part of that group.

Danville City Manager Ken Larking wrote in an email Wednesday that he was glad AeroFarms is on a path to stay open.

“I am hopeful that this effort will be a success and that it will lead to stable employment for the people in our region who are members of their team,” he said.

This is just the latest chapter in the ongoing AeroFarms saga which began Dec. 11, 2025, when executives sent a letter to the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement, aka Virginia Works, reporting plans to close by Dec. 19, 2025, because the company’s largest investor had withdrawn future support. At that time, the company said 173 employees, 127 of whom lived in Virginia, would lose their jobs.

Later that month, however, AeroFarms announced that an existing stakeholder had agreed to provide funding.

In a Jan. 14 update, AeroFarms reported the company had enough funding to continue operations at Cane Creek Centre until Feb. 27. If forced to close, that letter said, 127 employees, of whom 98 are Virginia residents, would lose their jobs.

A spokesperson for AeroFarms did not respond to a request for comment last week.

In 2023, AeroFarms transferred its New Jersey commercial production to its commercial farm at the Cane Creek Centre. A few months later, AeroFarms filed for voluntary protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code; however, the company pledged to keep up its efforts in Southern Virginia.

On Aug. 7, 2025, AeroFarms announced it had refinanced its debt to support ongoing operations at its Cane Creek Centre and had raised equity financing to support existing operations and fund preconstruction activities for its expansion to a second farm.

Equity was provided by existing investors, including Grosvenor Food & AgTech, a London-based investor in food and agriculture companies; Ingka Investments, a Netherlands-based investor; and Cibus Capital, a London-based investment adviser in sustainable food and agriculture, according to the August news release.

Siguler Guff, a New York-based private markets investment firm, provided AeroFarms with an asset-based loan to pay off a previous debt facility from Horizon Technology Finance, a Connecticut-based venture lending platform, that release stated.

In 2019, then-Gov. Ralph Northam announced that AeroFarms would invest $42 million to build a vertical farm at the Cane Creek Centre. The company opened its 138,670-square-foot facility in 2022.

AeroFarms produces micro bok choy, micro kale, micro broccoli, micro arugula, micro spicy mix and micro super mix for retailers including Whole Foods, Harris Teeter and Fresh Market.