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Economic development update: Culpeper tech zone largely built out; Continental plans plant closure by year end
Summary
Economic development staff told supervisors that most buildable acreage in the Culpeper Tech Zone is occupied and announced Continental/Tevis will close the local plant in late December; the county has received a WARN notice and is planning hiring events and rapid‑response assistance for affected workers.
Culpeper County's economic development director briefed the board Aug. 6 on several ongoing initiatives — a local farm‑exchange listing, continued promotion of the Culpeper Tech Zone (CTZ) and the announced closure of the Continental/Tevis plant.
Brian Rothnell described three economic goals and said the new 'Choose Culpeper Farms' exchange will help match farmland owners with prospective farmers. He updated the board on the Culpeper Tech Zone, saying the area totals about 950 acres with roughly 700 undeveloped at one point but that much of the CTZ is now in public use or already occupied; he listed campus participants including Equinix, SWIFT, CloudHQ, Databank and Edgecore and said there is little remaining contiguous buildable acreage for additional large data centers.
Rothnell also announced that Continental/Tevis has provided official notice of planned closure of the local plant by late December. He said the county received a WARN notice and that rapid‑response and retraining activities — coordinated regionally and by the state — have begun. Local hiring events for Continental employees are being scheduled and the county is working with area employers and workforce partners to assist affected workers.
The board thanked staff for coordinating response efforts and asked for follow‑up updates on worker assistance and marketing to identify a new occupant for the site.
