Berry Hill mega park gets mega funding

The Virginia Tobacco Commission approved millions of dollars for the Berry Hill Road industrial site in Pittsylvania County and local research projects that could lead to new products for the region during a meeting Tuesday in Richmond.

The commission approved $6.2 million for the mega park on to grade a 230-acre site to get it “pad ready” for a company to move in more easily, said commission member Danny Marshall. The grant would put Tobacco Commission investment of the mega park at more than $24 million.

“The whole purpose of this is to create jobs,” Marshall said, adding the site would be the largest graded pad in the tobacco region.

The commission also approved $1.5 million to grade a 20-acre site in Brosville Industrial Park along Martinsville Highway. The two projects would help the region offer different size industrial sites.

The commission granted the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research nearly $2 million for two research partnerships. About $1.4 million will be used to create chemicals from potatoes that can be used to help manufacture medicines as part of a partnership with Charlottesville firm ProteiosBio. The firm, which is investing $1.6 million, projects employing up to 100 people in Southside within five years in addition to working with 20 greenhouse producers in a five-county region surrounding Danville.

More than $520,000 could help the Institute develop another biorenewable crop for the region — Arundo donax or giant reed — in partnership with Chemtex.

The immediate impact would be up to three technicians for the research, said Institute Executive Director Liam Leightley. The money will support field trial assessments, as well as improving growth and performance of the plant, said Barry Flinn, director of the Institute for Sustainable and Renewable Resources. The goal is to develop the plant as a viable feedstock for ethanol or other bio-products.

The commission also approved $2.7 million for new firm Tyton BioSciences at the Dan River Business Development Center to further develop tobacco plants that can be used to produce ethanol or biodiesel, said Buddy Rawley, chairman of the center’s board of directors. The project would bring up to five scientists to the center.

“I’m excited about it,” Rawley said. “This could be a whole new industry.”