Realty Income Corp. and indoor grower Plenty Unlimited Inc. have partnered in a strategic real estate deal to grow and develop of Plenty’s indoor vertical farms, including the build out of one of the largest indoor vertical farming campuses near Richmond, Va.
Under the terms of the agreement that is set to provide up to $1 billion, Realty Income will acquire and fund development for properties housing Plenty’s indoor farms. These properties will be leased to Plenty under long-term net leases, according to a news release.
“This represents an advancement in the way indoor farming assets are capitalized and paves the way for their development as an asset class,” Plenty CEO Arama Kukutai said in a news release.
Realty Income also has agreed to acquire the land and provide funding for the first farm at Plenty’s indoor vertical farm campus near Richmond, announced last year.
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“Scale is a critical component of advancing indoor farming’s role as a core contributor to our global food supply,” Kukutai said in the release. “Teaming up with Realty Income is a significant step forward in accelerating the deployment of our farms with vertical farm facilities that are purpose-built to support Plenty’s proprietary growing technology.”
The predictability of Plenty’s high-tech indoor farming approach makes it possible to use more traditional forms of funding, like the alliance with Realty Income, Kukutai added.
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Plenty expects the future multifarm campus to deliver more than 20 million pounds of produce across multiple crops annually. The first farm to be developed on the campus will grow strawberries with Plenty partner Driscoll’s and initially serve the Northeast market, according to the release.
Plenty already supplies grocers on the West Coast and will further expand its California footprint to include Walmart, which is also an equity investor in the company, when it launches its Compton farm in Los Angeles County, according to the release.
