Ice cream maker Nightingale to open new Southside production facility in coming months

Nightingale founders Hannah Pollack (second from right) and Xavier Meers (right) fling cookies at a groundbreaking for the company’s upcoming new ice cream sandwich production facility. (Jack Jacobs photo)

Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches has come a long way from what began as late-night experiment in a restaurant kitchen.

The Richmond company, which has grown to making 80,000 to 100,000 ice cream sandwiches a day, will soon be able to at least triple its production capacity with the opening of a 29,000-square-foot facility on the Southside.

Nightingale marked the coming milestone with a ceremonial groundbreaking Thursday at its new manufacturing center at 2807 Transport St., where it intends to relocate and begin production late this year or early next year.

Co-founder and CEO Hannah Pollack said construction on the Transport Street facility is expected to start in the next few days. She said the company is making a $5.8 million investment in the project, a figure that includes equipment, real estate acquisition costs and other expenses.

Emerald Construction was tapped to serve as the project’s general contractor. The architect is Baskervill. Nightingale is financing the project in part with a loan from TowneBank.

The company plans to hire 166 new employees as part of the project, which would take it to a total headcount of around 250. The project is eligible for the Virginia Jobs Investment Program, which is a state initiative that provides consulting and funding to support recruitment and training, according to a news release from Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office.

Nightingale plans to invest nearly $6 million to open its new production facility. (Courtesy Baskervill)

This week’s ceremony featured remarks by Pollack, her husband and co-founder Xavier Meers and others before a ceremonial tossing of brown sugar cookies with shovels. Richmond Mayor Danny Avula and others also spoke at the event.

In his remarks, Nightingale CFO Cameron Chaplin thanked the city and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership for their support of the company.

“We’re not just breaking ground. We’re really growing roots, or planting our roots, here in the city of Richmond, the city that molded us, the city that supported us and helped us grow and be where we are,” Chaplin said.

After the event, Pollack told BizSense that the Transport Street property was a major milestone for the company because it would be the first time it could fully tailor space for its operations.

“Every place we’ve been up until now has been something that we’ve had to make work. The biggest thing about this space is we’re able to design it … (to) have the production run exactly how we want it to be. That’s a huge, huge step for us,” she said.

The company plans to move out of its current leased production space at Hatch, a food-and-beverage incubator in South Richmond.

Nightingale acquired a 29,000-square-foot building at 2807 Transport St. for its new production facility and headquarters. (Jack Jacobs photo)

About 24,000 square feet of the Transport Street facility is designated for production. The property will also be the company’s headquarters. Nightingale Holdings LLC bought the 5-acre property for $2.8 million in a deal recorded with the city in January, according to online land records. The seller was SWJ & Daughters Holdings, an entity tied to printing ink company Cavalier Group, which formerly operated at the property for years.

Pollack said the company anticipates it could increase production by three or four times in the new location and would have room to grow its operations in the coming years.

The forthcoming next chapter for Nightingale is a far cry from the company’s origins a decade ago.

In 2015, Pollack crafted an upscale take on the classic chocolate-and-vanilla ice cream sandwich during downtime in the kitchen of the now-closed Greenleaf’s Pool Room restaurant, where she worked as a chef.

“That’s where I made my first ice cream sandwich, at this little table top with a 2-quart mixer,” she said. “It’s such a surreal moment. We started this in a little restaurant kitchen, just me and Xavier.”

The following year she and Meers, who’s also a chef, launched Nightingale, which now sells its products in thousands of stores nationwide and continues to increase its retail footprint.

The company introduced its products at Harris Teeter stores in late 2024 and Whole Foods stores earlier this year. Nightingale’s products can also be found in Fresh Market and Kroger locations. In total, its ice cream sandwiches can be purchased in more than 5,000 grocery stores across the country.

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