A legal battle over the construction of the facility has erupted shortly after California-based Plenty Unlimited planted the first strawberries in its new indoor farm, located in Chesterfield.
Mechanicsville‘s Electrical Controls & Maintenance, a subcontractor, filed a lawsuit in the beginning of this month for nearly $8 million that it claims it is owed by Meadowville Technology Park.
ECM has halted work on the project, says Tom Wolf, its lawyer at O’Hagan Meyer. It has also asked the judge to order a sale of the property in order to collect the money it believes it is owed.
Plenty and its California-based landlord, Realty Income Properties are named as defendants in this lawsuit. Whiting-Turner is also named as a defendant, and ECM alleges that it has breached contract.
Whiting-Turner hired ECM in August 2023 for electrical work on new grow rooms that were planned for the latest phase of the facility located at 13500 N. Enon Church Road. This is where the first strawberries intended for commercial distribution have been planted. In the legal filing, this phase of construction was referred to as the Plenty farm 2 project.
ECM says in its complaint dated Jan. 10, that it is owed 7.7 million dollars, plus interest, for the work completed between August and November 2024. According to the filing in Chesterfield Circuit Court, it claims that it “repeatedly submitted” invoices for payment without success.
As of Tuesday morning, the defendants had not filed any responses to the lawsuit. Realty Income and Plenty did not respond to BizSense’s requests for comment.
There was no construction going on at the site Tuesday morning.
ECM has filed a lien against the property to enforce its mechanic’s liens. It is one of many firms that worked on the facility. Whiting-Turner says it’s owed $13 million by the company for its work in the expansion. Montpelier-based C.T. Purcell Excavating in Richmond, ColonialWebb, Henrico-based ColonialWebb, Chester-based New Market Asphalt Corp., and Richmond-based Liphart Steel have all filed liens in recent months stating that they are owed money. As of Tuesday morning, only ECM had filed an actual lawsuit.
The project, announced by the West Coast startup in September 2022 envisioned a multi-facility, $300 million campus spread over up to 120 acres of land at Meadowville. The campus will grow 20 million pounds per year and employ 300 workers at full buildout.
The first indoor farm opened on campus this fall following a groundbreaking in summer 2023. The company said it was a 100,000 square foot facility with 40,000 sq ft of growing space, ahead of sowing the first strawberry crop in late last year. The farm is designed to grow strawberries in 30-foot-high indoor towers. It also has the ability to control temperature, light and humidity using proprietary software.
ECM also worked on the second phase of the project, which began in November 2023.
In a December 2024 LinkedIn post, Plenty stated that it had planted the first strawberries for commercial distribution in the local facility called Plenty Richmond Farm earlier in the month and the company was planning to harvest its first crop in early 2025.
In a social media post on the same day, Plenty announced that it would be closing down an indoor farm in Compton, California that grew leafy vegetables. The company cited the “rising costs” of operating in California (including energy prices) as a reason for closing down its indoor farming facility. It also stated that it wanted to concentrate on growing strawberries.
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