Hanover’s Route 33 plan sets up industrial zone

Hanover County’s new Route 33 Gateway Small Area Plan is already attracting the attention of data center developers.

Data centers are among the preferred industrial and commercial users under the county’s long-range vision for the U.S. Route 33 corridor between the Henrico County line and Winns Church Road. Hanover’s board of supervisors adopted the plan in August 2025.

“It is one of the only gateways to the county left that has the potential to be a planned development,” says Larry Leadbetter, a county planning commission member. “When you plan it, it works better. You get a lot better usage out of it.”

The plan covers 900 acres of mostly undeveloped land except for the 208,000-square-foot former Tyson Foods chicken processing building, which sits on roughly 54 acres fronting U.S. Route 33. An LLC connected to Richmond-based Sweetie Boy Transportation bought the plant for $5 million in August 2025.

County officials saw the plant’s closure two years ago as an opportunity to gather public input and craft guidance for future development and infrastructure improvements across the area.

“The county’s dream is that the building would be demolished and something better be put in that would be set off of the road a little bit, maybe hidden better with landscaping,” says Hanover Economic Development Director Brandon Turner.

Hanover began working with residents, businesses and landowners in early 2025 to develop the small area plan, now part of the county’s comprehensive plan. Preferences included maintaining the area’s rural character, minimizing the visibility of parking lots from major roads, encouraging low-traffic uses on Route 33, and adding parks or open spaces.

The result is a framework supporting a mix of economic development uses in specific areas, including an industrial zone for data centers, light industrial and clean manufacturing.

“We are absolutely getting interest from data centers in that area, and that’s because we’ve got good water, good power transmission in that area, some ample acreage in that area,” says Turner.

The plan also calls for retail and restaurants along the Route 33 commercial corridor and a linear park and walking trail along the Chickahominy River and Grassy Swamp Creek.

It’s hard to judge when development will begin, Turner says, but “the small area plan really is going to be a catalyst to help some people make decisions for business investment a lot faster.”