Gotham Greens, a New York City company that specializes in sustainable indoor farming, has purchased Stevensburg, Virginia’s FresH2O Growers Inc.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Culpeper County company’s leafy green salad products are sold in grocery stores in Greater Washington and across the Mid-Atlantic. Gotham Greens's product line includes store-bought greenhouse-grown leafy greens and herbs, as well as salad dressings, dips and cooking sauces.
FresH2O’s operations are housed in a 540,000-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse located about 70 miles from downtown D.C. and 80 miles from downtown Richmond.
Joe Van Wingerden, the owner of FresH20, said in a statement the two companies share a desire to advance greenhouse agriculture and to bring more sustainable produce to market.
“We are proud to pass the torch of the greenhouse facility and business to Gotham Greens, our trusted friends and industry partners,” Van Wingerden said. “We have admired Gotham Greens’ outstanding track record of success in the industry and being exceptional growers, and there was no better choice in the [controlled environment agriculture] industry to continue what we built in Virginia.”
The news of the acquisition came with the announcement Monday that Gotham Greens had raised a $310 million Series E round that includes equity and debt funding. It was led by Montreal’s BMO Impact Investment Fund and Los Angeles investment firm Ares Management Corp. Other investors in the round include Wilton, Connecticut’s Commonfund; D.C.’s RockCreek; Jericho, New York’s Kimco Realty Corp.; Vail, Colorado’s Manna Tree Partners; and Basking Ridge, New Jersey’s The Silverman Group.
Gotham Greens said the new round brings its lifetime funding to $440 million since its founding in 2009. It said it will use the new infusion to expand into new markets, develop new products, fund the construction of new greenhouses near Dallas, Atlanta and Denver and expand its facilities in Chicago and Providence, Rhode Island. Gotham Greens said it would also look to make additional acquisitions.
In 2020, Gotham Greens opened a 100,000-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse at the former Sparrows Point steel mill in Baltimore County, where it says it can grow 6 million heads of lettuce a year.
