Plenty Waives Option on Meadowville Tech Park Expansion

TL;DR: California-based indoor farming firm Plenty has waived its option to expand at Meadowville Tech Park, scaling back its post-bankruptcy campus plans in Chesterfield County.

The story

Plenty Unlimited Inc., a California-based vertical indoor farming company, has waived its option to acquire additional land from the Chesterfield Economic Development Authority at Meadowville Technology Park. The company amended a three-year-old land option agreement in April 2026, about one year after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 29, 2025.

The move represents a significant scaling back of Plenty's original expansion vision. When the company announced its Chesterfield presence in 2022, it described plans for a multi-facility campus spanning up to 120 acres with an estimated $300 million investment. At that scale, Plenty projected annual production of 20 million pounds of produce and the creation of approximately 300 full-time jobs.

Plenty's current operation in Chesterfield is a single indoor strawberry farm occupying approximately 22 acres at 13500 North Enon Church Road. The facility opened in 2024 and is designed to produce more than 4 million pounds of strawberries annually using vertical farming technology on 30-foot-tall growing towers in less than 40,000 square feet of space.

The shift to a more conservative approach follows significant challenges. Plenty filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2025 after facing lawsuits and mechanics' liens from contractors, including general contractor Whiting Turner, who sought compensation for expansion work. The company emerged from bankruptcy with exit financing from One Madison, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and additional investors. Following emergence, Plenty announced a narrowed strategic focus on strawberry production rather than the original multi-crop vision that included leafy greens and tomatoes.

The company also closed its Compton, California leafy greens farm, citing the high cost of doing business in California, including expensive energy prices.

Key players

• Plenty Unlimited Inc.: Indoor vertical farming company that operates strawberry farm at Meadowville Tech Park
• Chesterfield Economic Development Authority (EDA): Landowner offering expansion option to Plenty

Why it matters: The decision reflects Plenty's operational pivot from an ambitious multi-facility, multi-crop vision to a focused strawberry farming model, affecting the scale of job creation and economic impact originally projected for Meadowville Technology Park and Chesterfield County.

Places

• Meadowville Technology Park
• North Enon Church Road

Related links

• Richmond BizSense: Indoor farming firm Plenty waives option on part of campus expansion in Meadowville Tech Park
• Plenty Unlimited official announcement: Completes restructuring, emerges from chapter 11
• Virginia Economic Development Partnership case study: Plenty puts down roots in Virginia
• Meadowville Technology Park

Read the original at Richmond BizSense →

Sources

• Richmond BizSense: Indoor farming firm Plenty waives option on part of campus expansion in Meadowville Tech Park
• Richmond BizSense: Indoor farming startup Plenty files for bankruptcy amid multiple lawsuits in Chesterfield
• Plenty Unlimited official announcement: Completes restructuring, emerges from chapter 11
• Richmond BizSense: New indoor farm at Meadowville Tech Park planting first crop this month
• Richmond BizSense: West Coast company plans to build $300M indoor farming complex at Meadowville Technology Park
• Virginia Economic Development Partnership case study: Plenty puts down roots in Virginia