A rendering of the 2 million-square-foot Lego distribution center and warehouse planned to open in 2027 in Prince George County. (Courtesy Lego)
Lego continues to build its regional presence, marking an early milestone in the construction of a massive warehouse while opening a retail location on opposite ends of the metro area.
The Danish toymaker held a groundbreaking ceremony this week for an upcoming $366 million warehouse and distribution facility planned in the Crosspointe Logistics Center in Prince George County.
The event Thursday came just days after a Lego store opened at Short Pump Town Center in Henrico County.
The 2 million-square-foot distribution center in Prince George is being financed and built in a joint venture between New Jersey-based The Silverman Group and Texas-based Hillwood Investment Properties, which co-own Crosspointe.
Lego will be the sole tenant in the future building and has signed a 20-year, build-to-suit lease on the property, according to a company spokeswoman. The building is being constructed on a 200-plus-acre property, where site work was already underway this week.
The project’s general contractor is Hillwood Construction Services. Timmons Group was selected to handle civil engineering. Ohio-based Red Architecture was tapped to design the project.
The warehouse is projected to cost $275 million to construct, and its fixtures, furniture and business personal property are expected to cost $91 million, according to county documents. Lego plans to make investments in the facility “focused on automation equipment and other aspects of the interior,” the spokeswoman said.
The warehouse would be staffed by at least 305 full-time employees with an average annual wage of at least $55,952, according to county documents. Lego has hired a third-party logistics contractor to operate the facility, but declined to identify the firm.
The Prince George warehouse, which is known as a Regional Distribution Center or RDC, is intended to support Lego’s upcoming 1.7 million-square-foot manufacturing center under construction in Chesterfield County. Lego also operates a temporary packaging facility in Chesterfield.
The upcoming factory will make Lego bricks and package boxed sets, and is slated to begin production in 2027, the same year the Prince George warehouse is planned to open. Products made at the factory will pass through the distribution center in Prince George on their way to customers and retailers, and the new warehouse is intended to strengthen Lego’s supply chain across North and South America.
“The RDC will work hand in hand with our factory to distribute goods that are produced just 20 miles down the road (at the Chesterfield plant). … Together they’ll form an integrated supply chain that will help us respond even faster to our local demand,” Cindy Sikora, Lego’s vice president of supply chain operations in the Americas, said during Thursday’s groundbreaking event.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (center) and others participated in a groundbreaking ceremony this week for the upcoming Lego warehouse. (Jack Jacobs photo)
Floyd Brown, chairman of the Prince George Board of Supervisors, called Lego a particularly special addition to the county and reflected on his childhood building with the blocks, which he said are more than just a plaything.
“As a kid, you see it as a toy. But Lego actually teaches us more. It brings out certain skills in us. It’s the thing that teaches us innovation and creativity,” Brown said. “They’re bringing (that) here, right here to Prince George County. And I tell you, that’s a wonderful thing for us to celebrate today.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin also appeared reflective at the event. With his term as governor coming to a close, Youngkin recalled the unveiling of the Chesterfield factory plans at the Science Museum of Virginia in 2022. He called the event, which came early in his tenure, the start of an advanced manufacturing boom in the state.
“Over the course of the last four years, we’ve had an opportunity to have a lot of ribbon cuttings and groundbreakings. And that, I think, is going to be one of the most fond memories I have of this time in serving as governor of Virginia,” Youngkin said in his remarks. “When we together agreed that Lego would come to Virginia, and we were standing at that Science Museum moment … it was the beginning of the great Virginia advanced manufacturing renaissance.”
The Prince George warehouse was announced in May and has secured state and local incentives to support the project.
The project is anticipated to generate about $92 million in real estate, business personal property and utility taxes over 30 years, according to a report by Glen Allen-based Mangum Economics.
The Prince George warehouse will be Lego’s sixth RDC in the world and the second in the Americas. Lego also has a distribution center in Texas.
In western Henrico, the company’s new Short Pump Town Center retail store opened last week. The Lego store took over the former Fink’s Jewelers space and an adjacent storefront on the ground level of the western Henrico mall.
The store is Lego’s fifth retail location in Virginia. The company also has stores in Northern Virginia and Virginia Beach. The company has more than 120 Lego stores in the United States.