Caroline County Board of Supervisors approves rezoning for massive Harris Teeter distribution center

The Caroline County Board of Supervisors has approved the rezoning of 190 acres for a 1.5 million-square-foot Harris Teeter distribution center.

According to the county’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism, the center would represent an investment of $200 million when completely built out, representing one of the largest industrial investments in Virginia. 

The board approved the rezoning at its Oct. 12th meeting, giving Harris Teeter the green light to proceed. If the company moves forward, the project is expected to eventually hire 500 people at an average salary of $38,000 a year. With taxes and payroll, the dept. of economic  development estimates that the center would generate $17 million to the local economy each year.

“This is the largest industrial project in the region, and there have been few distribution center announcements larger in the commonwealth,” the county’s economic development department said in a newsletter released Monday. Gary Wilson, director of the county's economic develoment and tourism department, said in an email that he could not comment beyond what was in the county's newsletter.  

The Harris Teeter facility would be located on Cool Water Drive at the North end of Loop Road in Carmel Church. The building would be situated on land parallel to Interstate 95.

The county’s investment in the project has been five years and $3.4 million, the newsletter said. McKinney & Co., a planning, design and construction firm based in Ashland, filed the application for rezoning.  

Harris Teeter Inc., based in North Carolina, operates stores in eight states and the District of Columbia, and employs about 25,000 people. The grocery store chain merged with the Kroger Co. in January 2014 and now operates as a Kroger subsidiary.

Harris Teeter is the second large project announced for Caroline County in recent weeks. Walmart announced plans in September to build a 158,000-squuare-foot superstore in Ladysmith that would employ about 300 people.