Lego plans massive distribution center for Prince George

The Danish toymaker has announced this week plans to build a warehouse and distribution facility worth $366 million in the Crosspointe Business Centre of Prince George County.

The project, which would cover 2 million square feet of space, will be built on an area of 200 acres or more at 8800 Wells Station Road. This is across the street from the former Rolls-Royce Manufacturing Facility.

According to a press release from the company, construction on the warehouse will begin later this year. The warehouse is scheduled to open in 2027.

Lego has signed a lease with Crosspointe Business Centre for the warehouse. This joint venture is between The Silverman Group headquartered in New Jersey and Hillwood Investment Properties, located in Texas.

Lego says the warehouse will be run by a third party logistics company, and it is expected to have more than 300 employees. This would be Lego’s second distribution centre in the Americas. It will join a center already located in Texas.

There are no further details available about the Prince George Project. Lego’s spokesperson refused to provide any additional information beyond the release.

The distribution center will work in conjunction with the 1.7-million-square-footmanufacturing plant currently under construction at Meadowville Technology Park, Chesterfield. The plant will produce Lego bricks, as well as packaged boxed set. It is scheduled to begin production in 2027. The company already operates , a temporary packaging plant located at 1600 Ruffin Mill Road, Chesterfield.

Lego says the Prince George project is part of their strategy to place manufacturing and distribution centers together and near major market.

The regional distribution center, which will be located in North America, will allow us to have greater flexibility and support our long-term growth. The warehouse will help shorten the supply chain for the Americas, along with the future Virginia factory,” said Lego COO Carsten R. Rasmussen in a statement.

Lego and Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Thursday the Prince George Project. Youngkin approved $2.5 million in grant money from the Commonwealth Opportunity Fund to assist Prince George with the project. Virginia Economic Development Partnership and Virginia’s Gateway Region worked together to secure this project.

The Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Grant Program and Virginia Jobs Investment Program will provide benefits to the project.

The Lego warehouse will be the first construction at Crosspointe after Rolls-Royce leaves the center in 2021. The British aerospace company originally planned to build a campus of several buildings, but those plans fell through. This left the 900 acres largely undeveloped.

Yoti Jabri, Director of Economic Development for Prince George, said that the county had invested $35 million to improve the site and infrastructure to make it more attractive to Rolls-Royce. The property is also in a great position to attract Lego, and possibly other businesses.

It shows that the investments made by our Board of Supervisors, EDA and others have paid off. In 2009, we bought bonds to make the site shovel-ready for projects. The site was originally for Rolls-Royce but they have now left and we are marketing to other companies. He said, “We are lucky to have someone like Lego who has a high-profile and a good name.”

Prince George plans to offer local incentives to match state incentives. Jabri stated that the local incentives were still in the final stages of being developed.

Centerpointe announced its second major economic project during Youngkin’s tenure. The governor‘s office announced that PGT Innovations was going to open a $54-million glass production facility at the 292,000-square-foot factory formerly occupied Rolls-Royce in late 2023. Jabri, however, said these plans never materialized.

Sol Solar, a solar installer and panel provider, appears to have taken over the old Rolls-Royce Building. Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing is a non-profit research group that operates out of a building at the edge.

Jabri stated that there is a lot of interest from companies interested in moving into the center. This includes pharmaceutical and biotech companies, which are attracted to the area by the Civica and Phlow plants in nearby Petersburg.

We host many site visitors there. The location is ideal for larger manufacturers, or the biotech and pharma industries that are popping up in Petersburg. We’ve received a lot projects from these industries as well.