In early 2020, a California-based tea company announced plans to build a $30 million manufacturing and processing center in Franklin County. The project was met with enthusiasm from local and state governments, who offered incentives to reduce costs and secure the business park as a major tenant. However, those plans were put on hold due to the pandemic that started a few months later.
Recently, Traditional Medicinals, the company behind the project, stated that they are still considering moving forward with the project. According to spokeswoman Danielle Cantrell, the company has spent about a year reevaluating the project in light of increased construction and financing costs since the pandemic began. While these cost increases have not made the project unviable, they have led the company to adjust the project size accordingly before moving forward. Further details about the project were not disclosed by Cantrell.
Franklin County’s economic development office still mentions the project on its website, and the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission continues to hold the $245,000 it pledged to
