Future of Chesterfield’s ‘Plenty Farm’ in jeopardy, company says they don’t have the money to pay back local contractors

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- The future of Plenty Unlimited, Inc.'s newly opened, innovative indoor strawberry farm in Chesterfield County may be in jeopardy. The company admitted it is nearing bankruptcy -- forcing local business owners who worked on the project to make a tough decision.

8News spoke with a local business owner whose team put hours, money and work into that big-ticket "Plenty Richmond Farm" project. While the farm opened last September, he told 8News his business still hasn't been paid. On Monday afternoon, Plenty finally admitted the reason these smaller businesses haven't been paid, saying it was because the company does not have the money.

One might remember the cheers and applause that rang out at the site's ribbon-cutting last September. Chesterfield County became home to a high-profile, indoor, vertical berry farm -- the first of its kind, promising to pioneer this industry in Virginia.

For Jeff Daulton, owner of Southern Striping and Asphalt Maintenance, LLC, signing on meant good, honest work. However, six months later, things have changed as the small business has been left unpaid and out of the loop.

"How am I supposed to survive? I'm a little guy," Daulton said. "I survive off of that money that I make through the year to get myself through the winter, through the hard times."

Baltimore-based general contractor Whiting-Turner hired a series of sub-contractors who hired other family-owned businesses, like Daulton's, for the project. 8News reached out to the general contractor and our team still has not heard back, but days after our inquiry, Daulton and other small businesses received an invitation to a private Zoom, "Plenty Town Hall."

"A bit ridiculous," Daulton remarked. "They knew it. They've been building on this for a while and then they spring it on you real quick."

After months of seemingly dodging Daulton's questions about payment, Plenty's interim CEO announced that the company "overextended" itself. Without using the actual word, he admitted the company was on the verge of bankruptcy.

So, now that the large-scale project is already up and running, they're giving the contractors who made it happen on time last fall, two options. They can agree to being paid 40% of what they were promised or it's lights out for Plenty and doors closed on the Chesterfield vertical strawberry farm.

Daulton's mind is already made up.

"It's a no-go," he said. "I'm funding their project with my money, with not any interest paid, you know, any stock in the company. Nothing. They're taking my money and investing it in their business and they want me to wait an indefinite amount of time to get my money back out of it?"

The clock is ticking. The smaller local contracting teams have until Wednesday around noon -- about 48 hours from the announcement -- to decide if they'll accept that 60% pay reduction. Plenty admitted that most of the contractors would have to agree to take the cut in order for plenty to live to see another day.

"It was take it or leave it," Daulton said when asked about Plenty's options. "He said, basically, if you don't accept this, all are our conditions, then we're just going to bankrupt the company and that's it. It's a zero balance. We don't owe anybody anything. We're just going to walk away."

Governor Glenn Youngkin signed the "Prompt Payment Law" a couple of years back. This legislation aimed to prevent issues like what played out in this scenario. It required companies to pay subcontractors on time rather than when they were paid by companies that hired them. This was to avoid chain reaction non-payments.

Right now, Daulton explained, because the larger contracting firms have not been paid by Plenty and are subsequently refusing to pay smaller companies they hired like Daulton's, it's the smallest businesses feeling the pain the hardest.

"The losses here are the sub-contractors that actually did the work," Daulton said. "The materials we supplied, the labor we supplied."

Involved parties are expected to regroup on Tuesday, but, again, the businesses were given until Wednesday to make a decision on whether they are willing to accept the pay cut. 8News reached out to Plenty and Whiting-Turner for interviews. Our team heard back from Plenty on Monday evening and is working to get answers as to why it took so long to loop in the smaller businesses and why they were given such a short turnaround time to make a decision.