Originally announced in 2017, Lakeside has invested $30 million to build a 15-acre greenhouse employing 140 people. It’s now growing, packing and shipping tomatoes and mini-cucumbers with a “Got to be NC Agriculture” brand. The company plans to triple the glass under roof to 45 acres and eventually employ 300 workers for a total investment of $100 million.
“Our food miles are the lowest in the industry when we are producing vegetables in the wintertime this close to the market,” Chris Cervini, Lakeside’s fourth generation owner, told business leaders and elected officials in a tour recently. “We’re very very happy of what the team has done here to be producing local, flavorful, sustainable tomatoes and cucumbers, year-round, right here in Mills River, North Carolina. And we can’t thank AgHC enough for all the support they have given us with this project from when it was just a bare piece of land.”