Lego’s $1B Chesterfield facility nears 35% completion

The Lego Group‘s $1 billion facility in Chesterfield County is nearly 35% complete, Lego Manufacturing Virginia General Manager Jesus Ibañez said Wednesday.

The Danish toymaker held a topping-out ceremony Wednesday at the 340-acre site in Meadowville Technology Park, placing a steel beam signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin and other government and business executives atop the structure of its packing building. Although there weren’t any colorful plastic bricks, a steel structure with a ceiling and some flooring stood on site.

“I do believe that today is a milestone in so many regards,” Youngkin said. “It’s a milestone in a construction project, it’s a milestone in commitment, it’s a milestone in collaboration and partnership, and it is also a milestone in the impact that these bricks have on children’s lives.”

Billund, Denmark-based Lego first announced the project, expected to create about 1,760 jobs over 10 years, in July 2022 and held a ceremonial groundbreaking at the site in April 2023. The company initially expected to begin production there in the second half of 2025 but announced in February 2024 that production would begin in 2027.

Lego is targeting January 2027 for the Virginia site’s completion, Ibañez said. When complete, the site will have 13 buildings comprising more than 1.7 million square feet, including office spaces, molding, processing and packing facilities and a high-bay warehouse.

“In 2027, this building will be buzzing with activity,” Ibañez said. “Just think for a moment, right here in this location, our bricks, packed in pre-packed bags, will be assembled with building instructions and placed into the colorful Lego boxes you will see on shelves, reaching children and, of course, adults all over the world.”

The company currently has hired more than 500 people to package toys in a temporary facility in Chesterfield’s Walthall Interchange Industrial Park. Those workers will eventually transition to the permanent factory, Ibañez told Virginia Business and reporters from other media outlets.

“We will transition the colleagues,” he said. “We will run both facilities at the same time. For a while, the temporary facility will help us to ramp up what we are going to do here. Gradually, we will start increasing jobs in this facility.”

Gray | Hourigan, a joint venture between Lexington, Kentucky-based Gray and Richmond-based Hourigan, is the general contractor on the project, which has about 1,000 construction workers.

The Chesterfield factory will be Lego’s first U.S. manufacturing facility and its second in North America (the first being in Monterrey, Mexico).

Lego Vice President Preben Elnef said Lego’s partnerships “with the Commonwealth of Virginia, Chesterfield County, Gray | Hourigan, the local business community, economic development organizations and so many others reminds me and us in the Lego Group why we have selected the location here. It is not only awesome — it’s perfect for Lego Manufacturing Virginia here, right here.”

In May, Lego and Youngkin announced the company will build a $366 million, 2 million-square-foot warehouse and distribution center in Prince George County. Lego expected to start construction on the facility later this year and have it operational in 2027.

“Together with our regional distribution center we are building in Prince George County, we will add vital capacity and capabilities to the Lego Group’s global supply chain,” Ibañez said. “With the opening of the factory, we will be able to shorten our supply and respond more quickly to U.S. consumer demand and reduce the environmental impact from shipping long distance.”

The Prince George regional distribution center will be the second in Lego’s Americas network, joining an existing center in Fort Worth, Texas.

Youngkin announced last week that he is recommending the Commonwealth Transportation Board allocate $25 million to widen the Meadowville Road bridge. Currently, Meadowville Road narrows from four lanes to two lanes on the bridge over Interstate 295. The CTB next meets Oct. 15, after a workshop on Oct. 14.

Founded in 1932 by Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen, Lego reported 74.3 billion Danish Krone in 2024 revenue, equivalent to about $11.27 billion. It employs more than 31,000 people worldwide, including more than 3,500 employees in the United States.

Lego has had a presence in the U.S. since the 1960s, when it entered a partnership with Samsonite to manufacture and market its bricks in the country. In 1973, the company established its American subsidiary, Lego Systems, after the license agreement with Samsonite for the U.S. market was cancelled. The toymaker is moving its U.S. headquarters from Enfield, Connecticut, where it has been since 1975, to Boston in 2026.