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Ask a Grower Question:
How do you find a good location for a cannabis cultivation business?
I myself am interested in a 10k sq space with very high ceilings located anywhere from Orange county area to Los Angeles and into the North Hollywood Valley or interior
Cultivation is all about zoning, you need to look to your city first. Make sure you’re within no radius of schools and or other sites that would conflict with your operation, also in one of my experiences we had to spend a lot more money than we projected due to an electrical issue, that involved uprooting the street.
Hi Tasia, Great info and advice, I am trying to help an investor out with a search, ….ALL the parameters and areas to look out for are on the client/buyer. I absolutely I would make sure (doubly) to ask someone such as your self for things to look out for. As the rules and laws change its easy to overlook or miss critical information, that can determine success or failure.
Are you seeing any increased focus with PPE (personal protective equipment) regulations? Clearly my concern is with UV protection, but I am curious about all aspects…vision, general liability, etc?
How do you take into consideration the location of customers as related to your grow? Does having more wholesale customers close by impact the decision at all?
Finding a location for a Cannabis Cultivation Facility depends on many factors. First and foremost read your State regulations closely, and know what the State requires.
Some things to look for;
Distances from schools, parks, correctional facilities etc… How are those distances measured (Door to door straight line distance or pedestrian route)?
Zoning - Check with the local municipality and determine what zoning types allow a cultivation business.
Utilities - Find out if the site has three phase commercial electricity available. For an existing building find out the total ampacity of the service. This information is very important when considering startup costs, as installing or upgrading can be very expensive. Make sure you have a good water source available, and high speed internet and telephone/cell service. Alarm and Camera systems need reliable,and fast broadband service. While doing these checks find out the rates. Electric rates can vary dramatically from urban to rural settings. Find out if there are any Time of Use (TOU) rates that apply. Some electric utilities charge a premium during peak hours and a discounted rate during off peak hours. Some offer lower rates if you’re a heavy user, so identify what that amount of usage is.
Is there a local “Opt out” provision in the regulations that allows cities or counties to opt out of Marijuana/Cannabis businesses? If so what were the election results? Was it a close decision or a landslide? Know this before investing, as some regulations allow a simple signature petition to bring up a vote to ban cultivation businesses. Get as much information about a particular location as you can before you commit.
Neighbors - How close are you to neighboring businesses or residential areas. These can be a huge setback at startup or down the road. It’s very difficult to control smell 100% especially in very large facilities. The more distance you have from neighbors the better.
In the hospital setting where I work there are rooms that are specifically designed with negative pressure and anteroom attached to the patient’s room. The anteroom is designed for the healthcare personnel to don their PPE and prevent contamination of highly infectious organisms such as tuberculosis. It is a buffer system that is critical for infection prevention and cross contamination between patients. Also, there are rooms with positive pressure for patients that are extremely immune compromised and can’t risk being exposed to pathogens.
This concept can certainly be applied to cultivation and there are some companies that are selling products for this purpose. Such as http://airstreaminnovations.com
Using anterooms for each grow room within a facility may be an important feature so that cross-contamination between rooms can be minimized.
Concepts like positive pressure and anterooms, I believe, are important considerations to weigh when designing. This could assist in keeping the good bugs in and the bad bugs out.
Thats a great use of existing tech for alternate usage. Add to that an ultraviolet system and a hi velocity “Air Blade” with a vacuum exhaust and you have a great set up for keep pathogens out of adjoining rooms or locations…there are quiet a few companies manufacturing these set ups and they will be a common feature in future grow locations and areas of production and manufacturing. Basically all existing food processing and safety features will be employed across the board once the level of demand makes up for the large upfront costs and the level of production and consumer safety warrant it. Just like any other commodity based business.
The cultivation site would be different than the retail site in this case…but if your retail and cultivation are in the same space it is ideal in densely populated areas…but most large scale grows are off site of the retail location because the retail location is usually a store front.
