PASSAIC — If all goes according to plan, the city will have its first cannabis cultivator within a year.
It’s not a done deal yet, said Luxxe Green owner and CEO Viviana Lamm. She said whether the deal goes through will depend on a number of factors, such as obtaining local building and zoning approvals, plus the actual construction. She said it may take between three and 12 months to get up and running.
The plan calls for the repurposing of industrial space on Eighth Street to grow cannabis indoors. Luxxe is in the design and construction phase, Lamm said.
The marijuana will be grown in a mix of soil and hydroponic growing methods, and Lamm said she expects to initially provide 10,000 square feet of interior farm space.
“It’s tricky because you have to eliminate things like mold spores,” she said.
First cannabis cultivator in Passaic
On June 1, New Jersey’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission approved Luxxe Green. It was one of two cultivator’s licenses it approved that day, permitting it to create an indoor cannabis facility.
Lamm was approved as part of the CRC’s program to promote minority women-owned business enterprises.
The business may take up to three years to turn a profit, Lamm said, adding she will also look to eventually expand operations to meet the state’s surging demand.
“Luxxe is in this for the long term,” Lamm said.
City’s backing
After Passaic passed ordinances to allow for the retail sales of cannabis, it decided to encourage other businesses that cultivate and manufacture cannabis products.
Historically, Mayor Hector Lora said, too many of the state’s poorest and least-powerful residents have paid a disproportional price for the sale or possession of marijuana, and it seems a slap in the face to those who had been incarcerated to see someone else profiting from a local dispensary.
Also while places like Montclair can open cannabis dispensaries, in Passaic, Lora said, that same business may come across as seedy.
“We don’t enjoy the same benefit of the doubt as other communities,” Lora said.
Cultivation is expected to provide more well-paying jobs within the city.
There are two other potential cultivators eyeing Passaic: Maria Canna Rosa LLC, which hopes to grow at 220 Passaic St., and Garden State Born, which would have its operation on Fifth Street.
Ultimately Luxxe plans to hire between five and 10 workers and provide them with good-paying jobs with benefits.
“These are the kind of proactive opportunities I am excited to see,” Lora said, adding that it provides an increasingly diverse population the opportunity to benefit from what’s essentially a new industry.
Cannabis cultivation fits nicely with the mayor’s effort to encourage vertical farming in the city, said Business Administrator Rick Fernandez. The city recently updated its zoning to allow for vertical farming.
The arrival of Luxxe Green to 8th Street also adds to the revitalization of the city’s East Side.
Most recently, the city welcomed the Stonemont Financial Group, an Atlanta-based private real estate company, which began construction on a 295,000-square-foot warehouse.
That project is significant because almost 38 years after the city’s Labor Day fire, the final 17 acres on 8th Street are being developed.
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