RICHMOND, VA - Lumber Liquidators, facing an onslaught of investor-related lawsuits, said it will invest more than $60 million to expand its corporate and manufacturing operations, including its Bellawood hardwood flooring finishing facility.

Lumber Liquidator's expansion will create approximately 250 jobs over the next three years, according to Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Among the plans, Lumber Liquidators headquartered in Toano, VA, also will consolidate its East Coast distribution operation in Henrico County, which will help retain 500 jobs in Virginia. The company announced last August that it had acquired 110 acres of undeveloped land within the White Oak Technology Park in Henrico County to expand upon the 750,000 square feet of distribution space across four separate buildings it uses in Hampton, VA.

The Bellawood plant produces prefinished wood flooring from domestic and imported species that incorporates a protective aluminum oxide topcoat.

Lumber Liquidators qualifies for a $2 million performance-based grant from the Virginia Investment Partnership program. In addition, through its Virginia Jobs Investment Program, the Virginia Department of Business Assistance will provide funding and services to support the Lumber Liquidators' recruitment and training activities.

“Lumber Liquidators is a great testament to how all of Virginia’s assets, from our natural resources used to manufacture their products to our ports that ship them around the continent and globe, create a formula for success and continued growth,” McDonnell said.

Lumber Liquidator's (NYSE:LL) expansion announcement came against the backdrop of mounting investor squabbles and lawsuits. On Jan. 16 Shareholders Foundation Inc. of San Diego announced it had launched an investigation on behalf of Lumber Liquidators' investors "over potential breaches of fiduciary duties by certain officers and directors of Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc. that caused damages to the company and NYSE:LL stockholders." More specifically, the investigation seeks to prove that Lumber Liquidators has not been forthcoming in responding to alleged violations of the CARB rule governing formaldehyde emissions in imported composite wood flooring products and for importing illegally logged wood in the Russian Far East in violation of the Lacey Act,

Lumber Liquidators operates more than 315 retail locations and bills itself as "North America's largest specialty retailer of hardwood flooring."