CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) – Work is formally underway on The LEGO Group’s first United States manufacturing facility, slated to open in Chesterfield County in 2025.
The toy firm broke floor on Thursday for the 340-acre website of the long run manufacturing unit in Chester’s Meadowville Expertise Park. LEGO executives stated the $1 billion, 1.7 million-square-foot facility might be carbon-neutral, with photo voltaic array energy. The plant can also be anticipated to convey greater than 1,700 jobs.
“Now the actual work of establishing the manufacturing unit begins,” stated LEGO Americas Regional President Skip Kodak. “This plant is coming on-line simply in time, simply as we want further capability right here for the expansion in our enterprise that we’re lucky to be experiencing within the U.S. market.”
8News toured the welcome heart that now stands, housed inside an enormous yellow LEGO block. The constructing consists of an enormous mannequin of a future manufacturing facility constructed by LEGO, in addition to details about the corporate’s historical past.
Kodak stated the welcome heart, which is open to the general public Friday afternoon, will stay standing as the world round it’s reworked.
“At this level, we’ve not designed in all of the other ways to have the ability to convey the general public proper into the manufacturing facility,” he stated. “We’re making an attempt to supply a safe facility, firstly for the security and well-being of our staff, after which secondly as a result of we now have sure issues that we do inside our manufacturing unit that we prefer to preserve for our personal IP functions. Nevertheless, our ambition, and we do that in a variety of different locations all over the world, is to be open, particularly for varsity journeys and that type of strategy.”
Additionally in attendance at Thursday’s groundbreaking ceremony have been Congressman Rob Whitman, Rep. Jennifer McClellan, Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Commerce Karen Merrick, US Beneath Secretary of Commerce Marissa Lago, Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors President Kevin Carroll, Nationwide Affiliation of Jay Timmons, chairman and CEO of the producers, and Glenn Youngkin, governor of Virginia, together with a number of LEGO Group executives.
Along with attending the groundbreaking ceremony, Governor Youngkin signed two an identical payments, HB 2238 and SB 1134, which create the Precision Plastic Manufacturing Grand Fund to supply as much as $56 million in grants from July 1, 2027 to July 1, 2035. make the Chesterfield County LEGO Undertaking attainable. Youngkin stated Chesterfield County and the federal authorities are additionally investing financially within the mission.
“It is a big step in confirming that Virginia is one of the best place to construct a enterprise that manufactures proper right here within the Commonwealth; that creates hope and a future for thus many staff, but in addition a partnership with an iconic model and an iconic firm,” he stated. “What the invoice represents is the duty that the state goes to impose on hiring and capital funding.”
The governor added that hiring will start within the subsequent few months to relocate and produce on board 500 staff for building functions, which can later increase to 1,761 staff on the facility.
“We’re not simply constructing a manufacturing unit, we’re constructing a various, inclusive and enjoyable office tradition,” stated LEGO Group Chief Working Officer Karsten Rasmussen. “In each side of what we will do within the design of the plant, we will construct it. […] to verify it really works as effectively as attainable. Additionally, with regards to power, water use, waste therapy, and so on., that is our promise.”
LEGO executives stated they’re additionally being attentive to youngsters in Central Virginia, who used LEGO blocks to construct fashions of how the power in Chester could possibly be constructed to include and shield the crops and animals that exist within the space.
In response to the report, by 2024 it’s deliberate to begin packaging in a brief constructing. Manufacturing is scheduled to start within the second half of 2025, and the photo voltaic plant is predicted to be accomplished.
