MANSFIELD — A Cleveland-based real estate finance company has plans to apply for a medical marijuana grower’s license in the hopes of creating a medical marijuana cultivation/production facility in Richland County.
Barrett Thomas, director of business retention and expansion with Richland Community Development Group, said a site selector reached out to him to discuss the possibility of setting up shop in the area.
“A company needs to apply to get the license to create a growing operation, so this company I’m talking with is the one that is the making the application, not MedMen,” he said. “The company that I’m talking with won’t be operating the business. They are the ones applying for the license.”
Essentially, the operation would be a pharmaceutical plant, he said. Thomas did not disclose which site the company is considering to locate the facility.
Ontario City Council discussed this subject at its meeting Wednesday and is seeking input from the public on whether or not the facility should be built in Ontario city limits.
Thomas said the facility would be about 45,000 square feet in size and approximately a $13 million investment.
“It’s all B2B (business to business) sales,” he said. “There’s no retail capacity — if so, they would violate their license and their license would be pulled. Then they’d lose their $13 million investment.
“They have a strong incentive to make sure they follow all the rules.”
That translates to ensuring that there’s building security, constructing a high-end growing facility, and again, not operating as a dispensary, he said.
He noted that all growing would take place inside the facility.
“What would happen is they’d grow and then the output is mostly oil,” he said. “There’s very little loose leaf marijuana at all because smoking it isn’t one of the legal uses for medicinal marijuana in the state of Ohio.”
The facility is expected to employ 33 people, with $1.6 million in payroll. That averages out to just under $50,000 a job.
“Some of those are $90,000 jobs,” Thomas said.
Gov. John Kasich signed House Bill 523 last June, which made Ohio the 26th state to legalize marijuana for medicinal use. The bill took effect Sept. 8.
