New site expands Columbia Care’s cultivation and production footprint by approximately 1M square feet; offers flexibility to scale with increasing market demand; supports potential use for future social equity partnerships and adult-use sales
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Columbia Care Inc. (NEO: CCHW) (CSE: CCHW) (OTCQX: CCHWF) (FSE: 3LP) (“Columbia Care” or the “Company”) announced today it has acquired a 34-acre cultivation site in eastern Long Island, New York. The Company’s first harvest and sales from this property for the state’s medical marijuana program is expected in Q4 2021, pending regulatory approvals.
The Long Island location offers supplemental cultivation and manufacturing capacity for Columbia Care’s existing Rochester facility that has served New York’s more than 120,000 medical cannabis patients since 2015, to meet the demand of a growing medical market, which, subject to regulatory approval, will include a number of newly approved additional form factors, including flower, in 2021. The new site also allows the Company to diversify its operations and open opportunities to create potential social equity business partnerships; a dedicated, federally-licensed global medical cannabis manufacturing and research hub in Rochester; and support the company’s entrance into the state’s adult-use program.
This facility currently has approximately 740,000 square feet of operational greenhouse space, which the Company plans to acquire upon phase two of the transaction, with 200,000 square feet of incremental grow capacity, situated perfectly for both retail distribution to Columbia Care’s three NYC and Long Island dispensaries and wholesale distribution to the most densely populated metropolitan area in the United States. The property’s infrastructure is fully developed for industrial scale and throughput and is currently used for growing ornamental flowers. Additionally, the existing owners have previously planted and successfully harvested industrial hemp on-site.
“As a company whose roots are in New York, it has been incredibly important that we build a scalable, vertically-integrated operation in the state that not only delivers the very best quality and prices to our patients and partners today, but also ensures that we can continue to deliver on our mission to New Yorkers through future legal cannabis programs. This is a commitment to our patients, communities, regulators, elected officials and social equity partners that we are here for the long term and intend to be the leaders who define cannabis in New York State – made in New York, by New Yorkers for New Yorkers,” said Nicholas Vita, CEO of Columbia Care. “We are eager to see New York’s regulated market emerge as one of the top global cannabis markets, with some market size estimates exceeding $5B by 2025 and more than 75,000 jobs created by 2027. We intend to continue to invest in opportunities that support this growth for all.”
Columbia Care will pay a total purchase price of $42.5M, which includes $15.0M in cash and $27.5M in Columbia Care stock. The initial payment of $30.0M has been made. The remaining $12.5M in stock payment will follow in August 2021 upon completion of the second phase of the transaction.
