Grow-op slated for Vernon's former Far West clothing building
VERNON - With the goal to produce eight million grams of pot in its first year of operation, a cannabis cultivation company is making a new home in the former Far West clothing building in Vernon.
The company intends to have the 60,000 square foot operation running early in the new year, which will employ around 40 to 50 staff when fully operational.
The business is a joint venture between Kelowna-based cannabis company GTEC Holdings and F-20 Developments.
GTEC Holdings chief operating officer David Lynn told iNFOnews.ca construction at the 1701 Kosmina Road site was well underway and scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. Once construction was finished the company could then apply to Health Canada for a licence. Lynn said he hoped the federal licence would only take "weeks" to be granted.
The company currently has a cannabis cultivation facility in Chase, as well as one in Alberta and Ontario.
Phase one of the $10-million Vernon operation should have an output of 8,000 kilograms of cannabis per year.
"In the legal cannabis world, although it's a large facility for us, it's small compared to what the big [cannabis producers] are doing with big greenhouses," Lynn said. "We're focussed on growing premium quality craft cannabis... we have indoor facilities that are more focussed on quality than quantity."
The company is also working on phase one of a 20,000 square feet development in Kelowna on Jim Bailey Road. Lynn said the Kelowna project is running on a similar schedule to Vernon and hopes to operational in early 2020. The $6-million facility should produce 2,150 kilograms of cannabis per year and will hire approximately 25 employees when fully operational.
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