Come June, a giant dirt-covered site in Cedar Bluff near the Tazewell County-Russell County line is expected to again buzz with heavy equipment as work resumes on the long-awaited salmon farm project that is now expected to open in mid-2028.
The news was announced Wednesday by Karim Ghannam, co-founder and chief investment officer for 8F Asset Management, a Singapore-based private equity manager. 8F created Pure Salmon, the company building the salmon farm in Southwest Virginia.
Ghannam, who traveled from Singapore, met at Southwest Virginia Community College with about 30 partners, including local officials, business leaders and legislators, to discuss the latest on the project, according to a spokesperson for Pure Salmon.
It’s been 11 years since the project was proposed for the coalfields of Southwest Virginia by Del. Will Morefield, R-Tazewell County, after he traveled to Israel and met with officials from a company that supplies technology for commercial aquaculture operations. There have been delays, changes and many rumors that the project would never happen, but company officials, lawmakers and local leaders say the Pure Salmon Virginia project is alive and still expected to employ more than 200 workers.
The 200-acre site is off U.S. 19, behind the community college. Since site work began in the fall of 2021 on what was hilly, rocky land, more than 2 million cubic yards of soil has been moved in preparation for construction.
Pure Salmon, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, is a global salmon farming and processing company. In addition to the facility in Southwest Virginia, it’s currently developing fish farms in Japan, France and Brunei.
The four farms are expected to produce a total of 35,000 tons of Atlantic salmon per year, including 10,000 tons annually at Pure Salmon Virginia. Dog and cat treats, currently sold at Chewy.com under the Marly & Dan brand name, will also be made at the facility.
In 2021, the project was estimated to require a $300 million investment. At that time, hiring was expected to start in 2023.
Since then, however, a number of costs have jumped. Company officials would not give the current expected cost of the facility except to say it will total “several hundred million dollars.”
“Unfortunately, due to the current global situation a number of costs have risen over the past 2 years, leading to a higher overall cost for the project,” Pure Salmon said in an email. “We have begun to see some costs stabilize and even come down a bit, we are also working on value engineering where possible to help reduce the overall impact on the project.”
Although it has been a long time coming, Morefield remains excited about the project and what it will mean for the region.
“It’s the largest private capital investment in the history of Tazewell and Russell County,” he said. “And I think it will set a precedent in Southwest Virginia globally to show companies around the world that we have the workforce, the know-how and the resources to make projects of this scale efficient and effective.”
Settling the land
Last summer, visible progress was being made on the site and then the work suddenly stopped, setting off a new round of rumors when the construction equipment left the property, Morefield said.
The problem was that crews ran into a lot of clay, according to Morefield, who added that the porous material is difficult to work with on a construction site.
Pure Salmon said it placed low-mobility grout and wick drains in the soil for settling and surcharge, which is placing weight over a building area to simulate the future weight of the facility that will be built there, to rapidly settle the soil.
This simple technique is used to manage foundation settling in the future, company officials said in an email answer to questions from Cardinal News.
“Due to the type of soil here and the heavy weight of the facility, the land needs to be compacted prior to building, this will help prevent settling once the structure is complete and hopefully mitigate the possibility of cracks in the foundations and underground piping,” the company said.
Additional areas will need to be surcharged before construction begins. Surcharge wait times are between four months and a year, depending on soil depth and compaction, according to Pure Salmon. The work starting in June will focus on earth work and soil remediation followed by foundation and piping.
Eventually, about nine buildings are expected to take shape on the site, ranging from a hatchery and “grow-out” buildings to utility structures. The main building will total 800,000 square feet, according to Morefield.
Hiring is expected to start in the first quarter of 2027, with full operations by the middle of 2028, according to Pure Salmon. It will take about 22 months for the fish to mature before they can be processed and sold.
Infrastructure improvements needed
The operation will require a number of infrastructure improvements to the site, including roads and water, sewer and power upgrades. It will be a large undertaking that will be shared by Tazewell County, which is handling the water and sewer needs because its plants are closer, and Russell County, which will build the access road from U.S. 19, according to Tazewell County Administrator Eric Young.
The salmon farm will need 300,000 to 400,000 gallons of water per day, he said.
Most county officials wouldn’t see a decline in population as a plus, but Young said it has meant that there’s more water capacity available for the salmon farm. The county has lost about 13% of its population from 2010 to 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The improvements that Tazewell County must provide are expected to cost $9 million to $10 million, he added.
The county will have to increase the size of the pipes to the water plants in Richlands and Wardell and replace two pump stations to get the pressure needed to put out the amount of water required daily, according to Young.
Modifications must also be made to the main water plant so it can produce the amount of water needed, he added.
The county will seek bids for the work this spring, award the contract this summer and start the work in September or October, the county administrator said. It is expected to take a year to 18 months to complete.
As for the access road, Russell County Administrator Lonzo Lester said meetings have been scheduled for this month to begin working on the project with other agencies.
He said he will discuss the project once he has more information and he added that he’s glad the salmon farm is “back on schedule.”
Appalachian Power had also been planning upgrades needed for the project, including building approximately 2 miles of electric transmission line and a new substation. However, construction did not begin in 2023 as expected and a recent visit to the project site revealed there was no work going on at the property.
Teresa Hall, a spokesperson for Appalachian Power, said the company signed a nondisclosure agreement with Project Salmon and can’t discuss it.
However, the project remains on the utility’s website, which states that construction was set to begin in early 2023, with the substation expected to be completed by fall and the total project to be done in late 2024.
Appalachian Power’s last update on the project was in July 2023, when it said right-of-way representatives were working with landowners to discuss property impacts.
Workforce development plans
Also announced Wednesday was a $200,000 contribution by Pure Salmon to the Southwest Virginia Community College Foundation for a tuition assistance program that was axed earlier this year from Tazewell County’s budget by the board of supervisors, the spokesperson for the company said.
According to Young, the board had little choice; it’s a tight budget year due to inflationary pressures and rising costs.
The program funds tuition at the college for Tazewell County high school seniors for the 2024-25 year. The contribution was suggested by Morefield, the spokesperson for Pure Salmon said.
The college and Pure Salmon are also exploring possibilities for collaboration on workforce training and programs tied to the salmon farm.
“The college is currently in the curriculum development phase of a water management and aquaculture program for transfer and non-transfer students,” said Robert Brandon, vice president of academic and student services at the college. “The water management program would allow expansion to other industries as well, including water treatment and sanitation. We have been working with Virginia Tech to develop a direct transfer program, and our Workforce and Continuing Education department would offer a non-transfer option.”
Young said the county will also help with some “background work” like helping Pure Salmon find employees and housing for workers, which is a challenge due to a shortage of middle-income housing. The construction phase will bring in a lot of temporary workers, and the county is trying to find housing, like RV parks, for them, he added.
He added that he’s grateful Pure Salmon has remained committed despite facing high inflation over the last three years and some challenges, like the clay.
He predicts the project will be “transformative” for Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia.
“It’s not tied to the coal industry or the energy sector, which is very cyclical up and down and is really difficult for families who work in that because you have a job, you make great money for six months and then you don’t have a job at all for another six months,” he said. “That’s tough, but this is food and it’ll be operating 12 months a year. It’s recession-proof … and it’s also diversification. And there will be other related businesses that will be boosted by this, too.”
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Correction 6 p.m. April 17: Pure Salmon Virginia expects to produce 10,000 tons of Atlantic salmon annually. The amount was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.