Marijuana facility receives approval
The planning board in the Town of Wawarsing in Ulster County has approved plans for Valley Agriceuticals LLC, whose parent company is Cresco Labs, to build a 380,000-square-foot marijuana cultivation, manufacturing and distribution facility. The Business Journal was advised that passage of the approval resolution means that the developer can move forward with building the project.
The facility will be built on a site covering 90.7 acres with 84.1 acres within the Town of Wawarsing and 6.6 acres in the Village of Ellenville. The site formerly was used as a manufacturing facility by the Schrade Knife company and Avnet Channel Master electronic components. The site is on Route 209.
The proposed site layout includes 754 parking spaces for employees along with loading docks for handling tractor-trailers.
The applicant Valley Agriceuticals reports that it currently operates a medical marijuana manufacturing facility and four medical marijuana dispensaries across New York state and meets standards of compliance required by the New York Department of Health”™s rules and regulations.
The company says it intends to grow marijuana plants, produce marijuana products, and distribute those products from the facility. The parent company Cresco Labs currently operates in 10 states nationwide, including what it describes as some of the most highly regulated cannabis jurisdictions in the country.” It says the new facility would help “offer the patients and consumers of New York more choices in selecting their marijuana products.”
The company says the facility would use about 98,000 gallons of water a day and its plans call for modifying two existing municipal lines to supply the plant”™s water needs.
A plan for odor management has been prepared for the facility and carbon filtration systems will be used to deal with marijuana odors. “This odor control system is consistent with industry standard facilities that are presently in operation across the nation in compliance with regulatory agencies of the cannabis industry,” Valley Agriceuticals said. It said an employee will be designated to act as contact for odor complaints and prompt steps will be taken to deal with unwanted odors if and when they are discovered.
When the plan for the marijuana facility was announced in August of last year, Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan said, “Cresco will turn a site that once represented the beating heart of this economy back into the economic engine that it can and should be. This facility is yet another sign that Ulster County is open for businesses and investing to re-energize our economy.”
It”™s been estimated that the facility which would have 300 to 400 employees once fully operational and that it would represent an investment of more than $50 million by Cresco.