TORONTO — Toronto-based Cannabis Wheaton Income Corp. has announced an alliance with IDP Group Inc. and HMT Solutions Inc. in which Cannabis Wheaton will allocate $12 million to IDP, operating through a newly formed subsidiary, to set up growing operations in the former Nestle Canada plant in Chesterville, Ont.
The new subsidiary will be named CannabisCo, a Jan. 26 media statement said. The former Nestle plant is sited on 60 acres of land and includes an existing 373,000 square feet of building space. The facility is located 50 minutes southeast of Ottawa.
Phase one construction of the facility will create 100,000 square feet of cultivation space and upon successful initial implementation of the cultivation technology is expected to yield up to 200,000 square feet of effective cultivation space, the statement indicated. Cannabis Wheaton also has the option to fund an additional two 100,000-square-foot expansion phases that would increase the overall cultivation footprint to 300,000 square feet.
The statement said IDP has in-house staff with “decades of project development experience including indoor agriculture, building design, lighting, HVAC systems, construction and project management” and has “successfully executed over $1 billion worth of industrial development projects to date.”
IDP also brings proprietary indoor vertical cultivation methodologies and technologies including modular farming and in-house LED lighting which is estimated to increase functional cultivation space by over 200 per cent once fully implemented, said Cannabis Wheaton.
The expansion phases are subject to Cannabis Wheaton completing satisfactory due diligence and the parties mutually agreeing to a construction budget and timeline as well as other conditions, said the statement.
Cannabis Wheaton estimates that its cannabis stream from phase one of the facility will result in approximately 7.5 million grams of cannabis per annum with a further potential to increase the stream’s output.
Chuck Rifici, chairman and CEO of Wheaton Income, stated, “The partnership with IDP is a fantastic addition to the Cannabis Wheaton platform as Hamed (Asi) and the team bring years of complementary skills and technology to this project. We also look forward to implementing their proprietary vertical cultivation system and custom-made fabricated LED lighting systems that we believe can set new standards for yields per square foot and operating cash costs per gram for indoor cultivation. We believe this to be an exciting and an accretive deal for both parties.”
I am very excited to see industry come back to this region. I will definitely be pursuing employment there because I believe I could be a valuable asset to the company with years of construction experience