Poultry producer Bell & Evans announced Monday that construction of its new 411,500-sq-ft organic-certified chicken harvesting facility is now underway at its 112-acre Chicken Harvesting Campus in Fredericksburg, PA. The company said the $330 million investment will double the site’s current capacity.

New assets in Fredericksburg will assist the company in continuing to expand production of organic chicken products to meet increasing consumer demand. Over the past three years, the company said it has witnessed 69.9% organic growth in US organic chicken sales.

The first precast walls for Bell & Evans’ “European-Plus” harvesting facility were installed in July. High quality and durable materials and finishes will be incorporated into the site, including acid brick flooring for production areas to minimize corrosion and insulating freezer floors with 6” of extruded polystyrene.

“I have been all over the world, including Europe dozens of times, visiting poultry operations and suppliers,” Bell & Evans Owner Scott Sechler said in a company release. “I have a really good grasp of what’s out there, and I like to take the best practices I find and make them even better to fit our Bell & Evans model. In Europe, producers have the right mindset. They build to last. I describe our project as ‘European Plus.’”

Bell & Evans plans to install new processing equipment from Marel and a 100% Air Chill system to lower the amount of water the site uses. A number of features will be added to increase the site’s energy and water usage efficiency, including a computerized utility system to manage energy and water usage. The company also plans to acquire a new automated transport system will move drawers of chickens into the facility instead of forklifts.

“I spent more than 50 years in the chicken business making upgrades to old processes and retrofitting facilities with the most innovative equipment, and now to be building these beautiful, state-of-the-art chicken plants from the ground up is a dream come true,” Sechler said.

The company said a second chicken harvesting facility will be erected at the Fredericksburg property within the next decade to triple the capacity of the site. Bell & Evens is currently building a new wastewater treatment plant on the parcel.