Agriculture startup Sunny Farms LLC plans to build a $59.6 million, 32-acre hydroponic operation in Virginia Beach — creating 155 jobs and one of the largest greenhouses on the East Coast, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday.
The facility, which will cover 1.2 million square feet when completed in three years, will be located at Taylor Farms off Dam Neck Road, south of the Oceana Naval Air Station and approximately six miles west of the beach.
The company’s cofounders, veterans Jim Arnhold and Wayne Zinn, worked with the School of Plant and Environmental Science at Virginia Tech and other industry experts to develop the greenhouse, whose production system will be sourced from Virginia-based Prins-USA, according to the announcement.
