Venice manufacturer spends $54.3 million to open Virginia plant

Venice-based PGT Innovations is expanding into Virginia in a move the state’s governor calls a “game-changer.”

The window and door manufacturer has created a new company for the venture, Triple Diamond Glass, and will operate it out of a 291,000-square-foot facility located at 8800 Wells Station Road in Prince George County, just south of Richmond.

According to a statement from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, PGT will invest $54.3 million in the plant.

The facility is the site of a former Rolls-Royce engine manufacturing facility that opened in 2011 to much hoopla and then closed nine years later taking about 280 jobs with it.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, says in the statement that PGT’s opening will bring 659 jobs to the area.

The company, according to the economic development agency, qualifies for the Major Business Facility Job Tax Credit based on the full-time jobs it creates and from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program.

Triple Diamond Glass, according to a statement from PGT, will initially produce thin triple insulated glass units and Diamond Glass laminated glass units at the plant. Its products will be available to window and door manufacturers by the end of the first quarter next year.

PGT says it chose the site because of where it sits on Interstate 95 and its proximity to window and door manufacturers in northern climate zones. Prince George is about 35 miles south of Richmond and about 145 miles south of Washington D.C. Cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York are within a day’s drive.

Other features that the company found attractive are a highly skilled and established manufacturing workforce and that the former airline engine facility was already equipped cutting-edge technology.

This is just the latest move by PGT which has been expanding for the past several years, buying Western Window Systems for $360 million, NewSouth Window Solutions for $92 million deal, Anlin Windows & Doors for $126 million and Martin Door for $185 million.