Construction equipment repair company R-Tec expanding into new Pony Farm Industrial Park

Construction on the planned Pony Farm Industrial Park is underway. (Courtesy Commonwealth Commercial)

A Goochland County equipment repair company is expanding its footprint with a move to a soon-to-be-completed industrial park. 

R-Tec Services, which is currently located at 2345 Lanier Road in Rockville, is planning to relocate to the upcoming Pony Farm Industrial Park, set to span around 84 acres across both Goochland and Hanover counties. 

R-Tec will take over a roughly 2.7-acre section of the park, which is just north of the Interstate 64 Oilville-Goochland exit, and build an 8,800-square-foot machine shop, office and storefront. 

R-Tec owner Chris Roberts founded the company around nine years ago after working for almost 12 years as an equipment manager at Rockville-based J.E. Liesfeld Contractor. 

Roberts began R-Tec doing mostly heavy equipment repair on trucks and cranes, but has since expanded his offerings to the manufacture of hydraulic hoses, plasma table cutting, 3D printing and other construction-related services. 

As the company grew to six employees and added services, Roberts began a search last year for a larger location that could handle expansion. He landed on the Pony Farm site.

Roberts said the new, larger building will allow R-Tec to handle more work itself, rather than contracting out to other shops. 

“The main thing is to be the one-stop shop. We’re known for doing a lot of different, complicated work. I want my customer to come here, and it’ll get done,” Roberts said. 

R-Tec equipment in action. (Courtesy R-Tec)

While the company leases its current space, Roberts said he will own the Pony Farm land, though the deal has yet to close. The asking price for land at the industrial park is $180,000 per acre, according to a brochure from Commonwealth Commercial, which is marketing the property. 

The bulk of R-Tec’s building on the new site will be used as a machine shop that will house bays for trucks and equipment and will have a 30-foot roof, Roberts said. It will also have a small office and a 1,000-square-foot storefront for R-Tec’s hydraulic hoses. 

Roberts said he also plans to hire two to three more employees in R-Tec’s first year in the new location, including welders and mechanics. 

In February, R-Tec, along with Goochland businesses 7 Lady Vineyards and Strickland Manufacturing, received “small-business expansion incentives” from the county to invest in their growth. 7 Lady Vineyards is building a new tasting room on the grounds of Dover Hall, while Strickland Manufacturing is planning to build a new office and warehouse near its current Oilville location.

Each business was approved to receive $20,000. The incentive money will not be awarded until the businesses’ new buildings are complete.

Construction costs for the new R-Tec building should come in around $1 million, Roberts said.

Chris Roberts

He plans on being the general contractor for the new building and hopes to begin construction after the industrial park is completed later this year.

Site work, such as tree removal and rough grading, is complete in the park, while crews are working to build the road that will run through the center of the project and end in a cul-de-sac. 

The industrial park has 14 lots, ranging from around 2.2 acres to 6.3 acres. Seven of the lots are spoken for, said Michael Mayhew of Commonwealth Commercial. 

Mayhew said that while the project was initially slated to be completed earlier this year, rain delays pushed it off to a projected finish in September.

Mayhew said Commonwealth Commercial has seen more interest in the park’s smaller lots, so the team behind the project is considering splitting one or two of the larger lots in half.

Local developers Patrick Dolan and Todd Walton are leading the charge on Pony Farm Industrial Park. The site straddles the Goochland-Hanover line, with about 40 acres in Goochland and 44 in Hanover.

It is located beside the existing Oilville Business Park, which has such tenants as Ogburn Construction, paneling company Tekstur and equipment supplier Centrex Technical Sales. 

Local attorney Andy Condlin with law firm Roth Jackson represented Dolan and Walton in the rezoning process, and Mayhew, who brought the idea for the project to Walton around three years ago, is marketing the site.

Separate zoning approvals were needed from each county, which was an 18-month process that wrapped up in January of last year. 

Mayhew previously said that the team behind the industrial park worked with Goochland and Hanover counties to address concerns about the project. Discussions ended with the project building heights being restricted to 35 feet, and a 30,000-gallon water tank added to the development for firefighting use.

A right turn lane is also planned to be added along Pony Farm Road, providing the only access to the site.

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