Eli Lilly Plans $5 Billion West Creek Plant, Expected to Reshape Goochland

A $5 billion Eli Lilly and Company manufacturing complex planned for West Creek Business Park will create roughly 650 permanent high-wage jobs and support about 1,800 construction jobs on a 227-acre parcel at the eastern end of Goochland County. The company announced the project Sept. 16, 2025, and regional reporting revisited the plan March 1, 2026.

The Goochland site is billed as Lilly’s first fully integrated plant for antibody-drug conjugate production and for its bioconjugate platform and monoclonal antibody portfolio, placing the county at the center of the company’s U.S. expansion that VEDP says follows more than $50 billion in planned manufacturing investment since 2020. Sources differ on timing but agree the build will take multiple years: Virginia Business reports completion within three to five years while ENR and VEDP state completion is targeted within five years.

West Creek Business Park sits about 20 miles west of downtown Richmond along Route 288 with direct access to Interstates 64 and 95. The 227-acre parcel is zoned light industrial, and county records show laboratory, pharmaceutical and medical buildings are by-right uses on such parcels. The business park already hosts CarMax headquarters and a Capital One campus, and Goochland County economic development supplied renderings and site maps for the announcement.

Virginia Business reports the plant will include about 200,000 square feet of production space to make active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished drug products for cancer, autoimmune and other advanced therapies. ENR says construction will combine cleanroom and containment design with modular production suites and that Lilly plans to employ advanced automation, machine learning and digital systems to ensure “right-first-time” execution as the pipeline grows.

VEDP framed the increased investment as an expansion from an earlier $2.148 billion plan that had been projected to create 468 jobs; the revised $5 billion plan raises the employment projection to 650. Goochland Board of Supervisors Chairman Tom Winfree welcomed the company: “We are thrilled to welcome Lilly to the Goochland business community,” he said. Virginia Business quoted an unnamed source noting local spillover: “Each manufacturing job will support multiple positions in other related industries,” she explains, “like supply chains and logistics and retail, which really dovetails nicely with some other projects that we have going on in the West Creek area.”

Civil engineering estimates from Timmons Group cited by ENR show additional infrastructure work will be substantial: roughly 15,000 feet of sewer extension, 12,000 feet of waterline and 10,000 feet of new internal roads. ENR also notes Lilly has not yet named design or contracting partners and that the scale suggests multiple engineering, procurement and construction management packages.

State support includes up to $130 million in potential appropriations through the Major Employment and Investment Project Approval Commission, pending General Assembly approval. A technology overlay district and technology zone established in November 2025 will add building permit and utility fee reimbursements for areas stretching from Interstate 64 to Patterson Avenue in the county’s East End. Site preparation and permitting are already underway, and renderings credited to Goochland County Economic Development and an official photo credited to Kaitlyn DeHarde, Office of Gov. Glenn Youngkin accompanied regional coverage as the project moves toward construction and is poised to reshape Goochland’s industrial landscape.