LEGO MAKES CONNECTIONS IN VIRGINIA
Last week it was announced that LEGO Group would be establishing a new distribution warehouse in Virginia’s Prince George County. In 2022, LEGO Group Head of Americas Expansion and Discovery Henrik Priess Sorensen told Site Selection that Virginia beat out over 40 U.S. states for the company’s $1 billion manufacturing facility, which ultimately landed in Chesterfield County. The new $366 million regional distribution center will support activity at the Chesterfield site, both of which will be operational in 2027. The investment will support the construction of a massive 2-million-sq.-ft. facility in the county’s Crosspointe Business Center, creating 305 new jobs. “Our regional distribution center is a strategic complement to the factory we are currently constructing in Virginia,” said LEGO Group Chief Operations Officer Carsten Rasmussen. “Both facilities will ensure that we have the manufacturing and distribution capacity to continue to meet long-term growth in the Americas for years to come, while helping to reduce lead times and our environmental impact through a shortened supply chain. We remain grateful for the continued support from the Commonwealth of Virginia and look forward to bringing more play experiences to children in the region and around the world.”
Rendering courtesy of Kimberly-Clark Corporation
DOES ANYONE HAVE A TISSUE?
Kimberly-Clark Corporation is bringing in over $2 billion to establish fresh operations in Ohio and expand its South Carolina site by 2030. Increased national demand for the company’s leading products such as Huggies, Kleenex, Scott and Cottonelle led Kimberly-Clark to move forward with what it has dubbed “transformative” projects. A new $800 million manufacturing facility will be constructed in Warren, Ohio, producing a range of personal care products across the 1-million-sq.-ft. plant. The decision to locate in Ohio was based on proximity to 117 million customers, serving as a key hub in the Northeast and Midwest regions. “This landmark investment represents a strategic bet on the American consumer and our ability to drive innovation-led sustainable growth for Kimberly-Clark,” said Kimberly-Clark North America Group President Russ Torres. “It reflects the confidence we have in our long-term growth plans and complements a broad range of commercial and R&D investments we have been making throughout the business as part of our Powering Care transformation journey.” Meanwhile in South Carolina, a $200 million investment will expand the company’s site in Beech Island, located in Aiken County near Augusta, Georgia. Project details include an additional 1.1 million sq. ft. to be added to the distribution facility. Incorporation of robotics and artificial intelligence-powered logistics systems will enable streamlined distribution operations at the 57-year-old site.
Photo courtesy of ODATA
QR03 GOES LIVE
Data center service provider ODATA, acquired by Aligned Data Centers in 2022, has reached its first milestone in the construction of the company’s largest data center campus to date in Mexico. At full buildout, the $3 billion project will house five buildings that will introduce 300 megawatts (MW) of IT capacity at the PyME Industrial Park, located in the city of Querétaro. (An April 2022 Site Selection Online Insider highlighted the strategic location of the State of Querétaro for an emerging data center cluster owing in part to less risk of seismic activity and a direct connection to the Mexican internet exchange.) At the end of April, ODATA announced that its first facility, carrying 72 MW of capacity, has officially gone online at the over 2-million-sq.-ft. campus. “With three anchor hyperscale clients already committed, QR03 is an established, highly connected campus and a critical interconnection hub for Querétaro and Mexico,” said ODATA CEO Ricardo Alário. “With abundant power and a strong presence of major cloud and AI providers, we anticipate this campus will play a central role in the development of Mexico’s digital infrastructure.” The data centers will feature the company’s award-winning air-cooling technology, Delta Cube cooling solution, which will be the first time it is used in the Mexican market, according to ODATA.
Reports compiled and written by Alexis Elmore
