The Harvest Park development will be a 130-acre space for marijuana cultivation and will create 1000 jobs.
After years of mixed messages from Michigan authorities on medical marijuana, it seems the industry may finally be able to move forward. State licenses for retail sales, cultivation, and transportation of medical marijuana are expected to be issued in early 2018. A plan to temporarily shut down all dispensaries looks like it has been dropped.
In a sign of what the marijuana industry can offer once the red tape is eliminated, Jeff Donahue has announced his plan to construct Harvest Park. This industrial park will be located in Eaton County, southwest of Lansing. Eventually, Harvest Park will occupy 130 acres and will offer cultivators and growers a legal space to operate.
“Michigan is the second largest medical marijuana state in the country, second to California,” Donahue said. “There’s going to be big demand as the new rules and regulations get implemented and this thing gets up and operational.”
There are approximately 220,000 medical marijuana patients in Michigan. Keeping up with demand could be difficult without complexes such as Harvest Park. However, patients will not be able to purchase directly from the complex.
“The municipality does not allow for retail or provisioning centers,” Donahue said. “So somebody with a card will still have to go to a dispensary or provisioning center to get their product.”
The park highlights how the marijuana industry can reinvent unused spaces. About half of the land Harvest Park will sit on was abandoned. It will also create 1,000 jobs. Not only does this benefit employees at the complex, it will also help local businesses and create additional tax revenues.
Work on the park is expected to begin in six to eight weeks. Donahue selected the site because “extremely receptive to the industry.” He expects that Harvest Park will start operations in the summer of 2018.
