12/13/2025
What Tate’s Data Center Gamble Means for Russell County
Tate, a global supplier of infrastructure for data centers and commercial buildings, has quickly become one of the most significant new industrial players in Russell County. The company is investing millions of dollars in facilities in St. Paul and Lebanon, tying coalfield communities to the digital backbone that powers cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
State and local officials describe the projects as a manufacturing revival. For a region that has lived through generations of boom‑and‑bust promises, the public deserves a clear look at how much money is on the table, what is being promised in return, and how this fits into a wider pattern of subsidized projects that have not always delivered.
Who Tate Is and What It Makes
Tate is a Maryland‑headquartered manufacturer that designs and builds raised access floors, airflow‑management products, modular aisle containment, structural ceilings, and related systems. These products are used in mission‑critical data centers and large commercial buildings.
Inside a modern data center, Tate’s systems help route power and cabling under raised floors, control airflow around server racks, and improve cooling efficiency. The company operates within Kingspan’s data‑solutions division and serves hyperscale cloud operators, colocation providers, and enterprise data centers across North America and other regions.
The St. Paul Facility: A $14.9 Million Bet and 170 Jobs
In late 2023, state officials announced that Tate would invest about 14.9 million dollars to establish a new manufacturing facility in Russell County. The plant is located in the former Bush building in St. Paul and is focused primarily on manufacturing components and containment products for data‑center customers in Virginia and elsewhere.
The project was unveiled with a headline promise of 170 new jobs, making it one of the largest manufacturing commitments in the coalfield region in years. A state workforce‑development initiative has been tasked with providing customized recruiting and training to help Tate staff the facility, working in partnership with community colleges and other education providers.
Regional economic‑development leaders have highlighted the St. Paul project as part of an emerging “Data Center Ridge” strategy. The idea is that, while the servers and massive power loads remain concentrated in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia can capture manufacturing, support, and back‑office roles that serve the same industry.
The Lebanon Expansion: A Second Plant and More Public Support
In late 2025, Tate announced a second major move in Russell County: the acquisition and occupation of a roughly 131,000‑square‑foot former Alcoa manufacturing building in Lebanon. The facility sits on about 11 acres along U.S. 19 and includes a large open manufacturing floor, office space, and multiple docks and overhead doors.
The building has been acquired and renovated through a collaboration led by the Russell County Industrial Development Authority and regional economic‑development financiers. Tate plans to lease the upgraded space and begin operations there, with the company and local leaders projecting roughly three dozen additional full‑time jobs over the next few years.
Officials are framing this expansion as confirmation that the initial St. Paul investment is working. They present Tate’s growing footprint as proof that Russell County can be a long‑term hub for data‑center infrastructure manufacturing rather than a one‑off announcement.
How Much Public Money Is in the Deal?
While Tate is bringing private capital and jobs, the projects are also backed by substantial public support.
For the St. Paul facility, the commonwealth awarded a significant performance‑based grant from a statewide opportunity fund to assist the county with the project. The regional tobacco‑revitalization commission approved an additional grant tied to the same facility. On top of that, several years earlier, a coalfield economic‑development authority provided multi‑million‑dollar financing that allowed the Russell County Industrial Development Authority to purchase and prepare the St. Paul building. The same authority has also approved workforce‑development and training funds specifically for Tate.
For the Lebanon expansion, the county industrial authority acquired and renovated the former Alcoa building using new financing from the same regional lender, again backed by public programs created to spur investment in distressed communities. Tate will lease a facility that has effectively been upgraded at public expense, in exchange for a commitment to operate there and create jobs.
In addition to these grants and loans, Tate is eligible for state‑supported workforce assistance and potentially other tax incentives commonly offered to manufacturers. Not all of these supports are fully itemized in public summaries, but taken together they represent a layered stack of public investment underwriting a private manufacturer’s expansion.
What’s Actually Happening on the Ground?
Tate’s St. Paul facility has begun operations, producing data‑center components and hiring for a range of technical and production roles. Job postings and local updates describe openings for quality, maintenance, mechanical and electrical technicians, paint and laser technicians, and other skilled positions.
The renovated Lebanon facility is slated to begin operations as Tate ramps up its manufacturing capacity there. Regional officials have praised Tate as a “good employer” and a “strong partner,” emphasizing the company’s wages, benefits, and potential to diversify an economy long dominated by coal and related industries.
So far, the narrative presented by officials is one of steady progress: buildings that sat under‑used are being brought back to life, and a global company is betting on small coalfield towns as part of its North American strategy.
Public Money, Private Risk: A Familiar Pattern
Tate’s arrival is a real development story, but it is also part of a familiar pattern. Over the past two decades, public entities across Southwest and Southside Virginia have poured millions of dollars into industrial parks, factory renovations, workforce‑training grants, and direct incentives for companies that promised jobs.
Some of those projects have taken root. Others have not. Residents can point to shuttered plants that once came with big headlines, empty or half‑built industrial sites, and smaller firms that accepted public funds before quietly closing or leaving. In several cases, companies fell far short of job promises or shut down within a few years, leaving taxpayers responsible for the debt on buildings, infrastructure, and site work.
Because these deals are spread across multiple programs and jurisdictions, there is no single, simple number that captures how many subsidized projects have failed or under‑performed. What does exist, in public audits and investigative reporting, is a consistent set of concerns: weak clawback provisions when companies miss targets, limited transparency around deal terms, and a tendency to prioritize splashy announcements over patient support for local entrepreneurs.
In that context, Tate’s projects are not inherently a problem. But they are a reminder that any time public funds underwrite private risk, residents have a right—and a responsibility—to ask hard questions.
A Region That Deserves Full Transparency
Residents of Russell County and surrounding communities have every reason to welcome new manufacturing jobs and to celebrate when global companies choose to invest in the coalfields. They also have every right to demand clear answers about how public money is used and how success will be measured over the long haul.
Tate’s investments in St. Paul and Lebanon have the potential to become a cornerstone of a more diverse local economy, supporting families and helping the region participate in a global digital‑infrastructure boom. They also have the potential, if not carefully monitored, to become one more line on a long list of projects that looked better on paper than they did in practice.
The difference will depend not only on Tate’s business decisions but on how seriously local and state leaders take their responsibility to monitor outcomes, enforce agreements, and report honestly to the public. In a county that has been promised transformation many times before, that kind of transparency is not a luxury—it is the minimum standard taxpayers should expect.
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Tate, a Kingspan company and global leader in mission-critical data center infrastructure solutions, has announced an expansion of its U.S. manufacturing operations with the acquisition of a 131,000-square-foot facility in Lebanon, VA.
Tate will occupy the former Alcoa manufacturing building, which has been acquired and renovated through a collaborative effort led by the Russell County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) and the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA).
Earlier this year, VCEDA approved an up to $4 million loan enabling the IDA to purchase and prepare the building at 705 Regional Park Road for new industrial use, after which Tate will lease the upgraded facility. Located just 18 miles from the company’s existing St. Paul site, the Lebanon location expands Tate’s North American production footprint, strengthens manufacturing resiliency, and is expected to create up to 35 new full-time jobs within three years.
Read more: https://vceda.us/tate-expands-u-s-manufacturing-footprint-bringing-new-jobs-to-russell-county/
