August 16,2018-
Jose Rivas, founder of Premium Extracts Inc, says the Bay Area cannabis company has given up on building a manufacturing plant in Hanford and instead will be constructing a facility in Woodlake in nearby Tulare County.
“We bought land in Woodlake and have already pushed over some olive trees” say Rivas,” and applied for our conditional use use permit” from the city.
Woodlake city planner Jason Waters says the company application will be the subject of a public hearing in September.
Waters says that Premium Extracts will build a 6600sf facility near the corner of Naranjo and Blair in town. They say they will employ 10 to 15 people.
Hanford says ‘no’
The company was one of three cannabis firms who had hoped to be pioneers pot growers in Hanford until that city council decided not to allow cultivation of recreational-use (same as adult-use) cannabis but restrict activities to just pot for medicinal use.
How quickly the atmosphere has changed in Hanford when in March the Hanford City Council heard an appraisal to sell two industrial parcels they own. The appraisal suggested cannabis growing “has the potential to add thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue for the city.”
The report recounted that cannabis company Genezen recently purchased the long-vacant Calcot plant in the Hanford Industrial Park for $11 million and for the past four years the property had received offers of only $6 million. Another firm, Caliva, is said to want to purchase 47 acres in the industrial park, but as of Jan. 23, the date of the appraisal report, had not opened an escrow.
Woodlake-bound Premium Extracts had already purchased 2.5 acres the Hanford Industrial Park but now will likely sell the land. The other two companies who had announced their intention to build in Hanford have also not moved forward.
In front of the Hanford City Council in a vain effort to get them to change their mind Larry Thacker, CEO of Caliva, said the changes the state made to the law earlier essentially “financially gutted the benefits to the City of Hanford and its citizens,” and said amending the ordinance will restore the financial benefits the city was promised it would see.
The Hanford Sentinel reported another Caliva rep commented.
“We have no choice but to ask you to change it to adult-use so that we can maximize our profits and thereby maximize the benefit to the people of Hanford.”
Thacker said in March that Caliva has already hired a local construction company for work and is already looking for employees in certain positions for the business in Hanford.
“We talk about being a good partner; to date, Caliva has invested $4.5 million into the city of Hanford and are prepared to continue with substantially larger investments,” Thacker said.
But council voted 4 to 1 in early April 2018 to kept restrictions on recreational-use cultivation in place. Now, what looked like what would be substantial business, is going elsewhere.
“A change to this ordinance is literally the difference of millions of dollars into the city’s coffers and hundreds of jobs within this community,” Jose Rivas, of Premium Extracts said in the April city hearing.
Now he says the council decision is why they are fleeing Hanford.
“It seems the city council will not change mind with our one favorable vote Justin Mendes deciding to leave to run for Assembly says Premium Extracts CEO Jose Rivas
Back in Woodlake
Meanwhile Woodlake is heading in the opposite direction, allowing companies to grow cannabis for both medicinal and the much larger recreational use market.
Premium Extracts would be the 7th cannabis manufacturer or cultivator making their way through the city permit process with an 8th project called Alta Properties being proposed on South Acacia with plans for a 25,000sf facility. That application was approved by the city in July employing 15.
Waters says none of the cannabis makers or cultivators are in operation yet with only a dispensary open for business in town as of now.
The residents of the City of Woodlake passed a local sales tax measure and a cannabis tax measure on November 7, 2017.
Already the general fund is benefiting says a city report.
Local businesses started to collect Measure R taxes April 1, 2018. These revenues have been used to purchase equipment for Valencia Heights Park and Alsamuri Park. They have also been used to purchase a new police vehicle and hire one new police officer. Through July 30, 2018 the City had collected $54,403.93 in Measure R taxes.