Acreage Holdings, a New York-based cannabis company, purchased the vacant, multimillion-dollar greenhouse in Sewell last April as New Jersey's medical marijuana program exploded and the state began preparing for a potentially bustling recreational market.
The 135,000-square-foot greenhouse is adjacent to Delaware Valley Floral, a nationwide distributor of cut roses and flowers, and is located in an area of Gloucester County with scattered houses and farms. The greenhouse could become the largest marijuana cultivation center on the East Coast.
Acreage is partnering with Compassionate Care Foundation, a dispensary operator that sells cannabis and grows marijuana in an 85,000-square-foot warehouse in Egg Harbor Township, outside Atlantic City.
The new greenhouse "will be a sea of green, a solid canopy with plants that probably max out at three feet," said Phillip Hague, director of cultivation for Acreage, as he showed off the metallic bones of the high-tech facility this month.
The company manages dispensaries in 11 other states, including Pennsylvania. Former House Speaker John Boehner and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld recently joined its board of advisers.