Cannabis firm Columbia Care, has acquired a 34-acre cultivation site in Riverhead for a staggering $42.5 million this month.
Columbia Care, which participates in New York’s medical marijuana program and also operates a retail dispensary in Riverhead, bought the site on Sound Avenue from Van de Wetering Greenhouses.
As part of the deal, there is a multi-year lease to operate about 740,000 square feet of greenhouse space, which the company plans to acquire with “200,000 square feet of incremental grow capacity,” according to a statement.
The company plans to harvest its first crop of marijuana at the Riverhead facility before the end of the year, pending regulatory approval.
Columbia Care’s existing Rochester facility has served New York’s more than 120,000 medical cannabis patients since 2015.
In the deal, Columbia Care will pay a total purchase price of $42.5 million which includes $15 million in cash and $27.5 million in Columbia Care stock. The initial payment of $30 million has already been made. The remaining $12.5 million in stock payment will follow in August 2021 upon completion of the second phase of the transaction.
“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,” said Nicholas Vita, CEO of Columbia Care.
“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. 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 $5 billion 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,” he added.
“This transaction allows us to continue servicing our customers while transitioning production space over to cannabis as the market demand increases,” said Walter Gravagna, Van de Wetering Greenhouses owner and president. “We are very excited to work with Columbia Care who is already our neighbor in Riverhead where one of its four medical cannabis dispensaries is located.”
The Columbia Care property purchase, one of the largest ever in the cannabis industry.
