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80,000 marijuana plants will fill West Michigan grow facility once complete

With phase one complete, the first marijuana plants are expected to start growing in a week at 305 Farms.  The 44,000-square-foot building in Lawrence’s industrial park will house 2,500 marijuana plants for 305 Farms. The facility held a grand opening Monday, March 15.

A final inspection should happen in the next few days, and then plants are expected to start growing within a week, Vice President of Business Development Mitchell Maltz said.

It’s been two and a half years of hard work to get to the opening, but Maltz said he’s excited to see everything come together.

305 Farms pays homage to the Miami, Florida, area code where the investment partner Verleur Group LLC and CEO Matthew Peon are from, Maltz said. He is also from Miami.

The first of three buildings in Van Buren County will have a lab, commercial kitchen, rolling machine and vault, 305 Farms cultivation assistant Henry Payne said.

After the marijuana plants are grown and dried – about a 135-day process – they go to the trimming room. Then the product may be turned into oils in the lab, rolled into premade joints, made into gummies or sold as flower.  305 Farms will only sell marijuana that has 25% THC or higher, Maltz said. They want to produce high-quality boutique strains, including sativa products which a lot of other businesses do not offer, he said.

The products will be sold under the label Workers Cannabis, Maltz said. It will be available at some stores, but the company also plans to open their own dispensaries.  In the next six to eight months, 305 Farms wants to open small shops in rural areas, where the focus will be on delivery, Maltz said. An app will allow people to order products and also find the closest dispensary to them.

“We’re not going to be in the Detroit metro area. We’re not going to be in Grand Rapids,” Maltz said. “We’re going to be in rural areas around the state.” The company also wants to help mom and pop shops, by working out ways for Workers Cannabis to be on their shelves with a hybrid deal to help the smaller companies, Maltz said.

“We’re not big cannabis,” he said.

The company will recycle 95% of the water used in growing its plants, Maltz said. They will use LED artificial grow lights, which consume less electricity, Maltz said.

By 2025, 305 Farms plans to have 80,000 marijuana plants and 350,000 square feet of growing and processing space in Lawrence.

The company will be the “largest single-stack facility,” in Michigan, Maltz said. The growing, processing and product creation will all be within the 40-acre campus near Lawrence.  The minimum pay for employees is $20 an hour, with benefits, Maltz said.

“It’s a great program for us to give the community some extra jobs and well-paying jobs,” he said.  Once phase three is completed in 2025, Maltz said, there should be more than 200 jobs created.

Posted By: mlive on March 16, 2022.  For more information, please click here to read the source article.

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