Virginia garden center lays off 97 after $160M sale to data center developer

Merrifield Garden Center will shut down its Gainesville facility this December, laying off 97 employees, following a $160 million sale of the 34-acre Prince William County property to a private equity firm specializing in developing data centers.

Founded in 1971 and headquartered in Fairfax County, Merrifield Garden Center has three Northern Virginia locations with 600 employees, including the workers who are being laid off. The Gainesville property, which includes a garden retail store, was sold Oct. 14 to a limited liability company affiliated with Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm TheBlackChamber Group formed in 2019.

Merrifield Garden Center notified the state of the Gainesville store’s closing and the 97 layoffs last week in a letter complying with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.

In a letter to the Virginia Works agency, corporate operations manager David Watkins notes that the 6895 Wellington Road site, near Manassas, will close Dec. 31. The garden center property is within an area designated as a data center opportunity zone district, allowing data centers to be built without a rezoning vote.

TheBlackChamber Group specializes in developing data center properties and has made major investments in land for data centers in Northern Virginia, especially Loudoun and Prince William counties, according to Data Center Map. The investment firm did not immediately return a request for comment.

The Merrifield Garden Center plant’s closure will impact 97 employees, including positions in sales, management, drivers, cashiers, crew and yard work. The letter said the layoffs are expected to be permanent and that there is no job bumping system.

Watkins declined to discuss the reasons for the plant’s closure, citing a contract. Regarding the company’s future, he said the company hopes to remain open at the other two locations “for a long time.”