The largest marijuana cultivation facility in the United States will soon be built in Massachusetts, according to a report from the Boston Business Journal.
Denver-based AmeriCann marijuana grow announced last week the initial phase of its plan to establish the one-million-square-foot Massachusetts Medical Marijuana Center in the jurisdiction of Freetown. The construction project, which is said to be the largest of its kind, will be positioned on over 50 acres that were previously owned by the Boston Beer Company.
From Beer To Marijuana Grow
An expansion to the operations of the Boston Beer Company was originally scheduled to take place there several years ago, but those plans fell through for unknown reasons. In the fall of 2016, AmeriCann snatched up the property, which had been for sale for around eight years, for a cool $4.475 million. The company will get started on the new facility in early 2017.
The initial focus of the Massachusetts Medical Marijuana Center is a 130,000-square-foot cultivation and processing space, along with another 30,000-square-foot building that will be used for research. This phase of construction, which company officials expect will be finished by the fall of 2017, is said to come with a price tag of around $25 million.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the new facility is it is slated to become a business incubator, of sorts, for smaller marijuana operations. Reports indicate that the company will section off portions of the facility to lease to tenants in need of training centers and corporate offices.
However, the company’s primary focus will be to produce a variety of cannabis products for the state’s licensed marijuana dispensaries.
A New Horizon
AmeriCann “will set a new cannabis industry standard for energy efficiency, cost control, clean cultivation practices, and the production of Nutraceutical-grade infused products for the patients of Massachusetts,” the company said in a statement.
Although medical marijuana has been legal throughout Massachusetts since 2012, officials with AmeriCann say it was the legalization of recreational marijuana in the November election that moved them to get serious about whipping the Freetown facility into shape.
It was revealed last week in a report by Arcview Market Research and New Frontier Data that Massachusetts could soon become home to the “marijuana capital of the world,” giving way to a more than $1 billion marketplace by 2020. The report suggests the cannabis market in the Bay State will experience a growth rate of 113 percent over the next three years, knocking Colorado off its throne as the reigning champion of weed.
