The CEO of a medical marijuana company who broke ground Thursday on Ohio's first cultivation facility in Yellow Springs described the Dayton-area community as tailor-made for his new venture.

"If we were going to create this new version of cannabis (production) in an area that never had it before, it was really important to have a solid relationship with the community,'' said Charles Bachtell, founder and CEO of Chicago-based Cresco Labs LLC. "Yellow Springs was on board with this collaborative process as soon as we started talking. We really hit it off.''

Bachtell plans to build a $7 million, 50,000-square-foot state-of-the-art greenhouse on eight acres of land in the town perched midway between Dayton and Columbus.

For Bachtell, there is no better location in Ohio to set up shop than the remote enclave of about 3,700 people whose most famous resident, comedian Dave Chappelle, has described it as a "hippie town'' for its free-spirited, counterculture reputation.

"I wasn't initially aware of the town's reputation, but it was interesting to find that out,'' said Bachtell, who began pursuing a license in Ohio shortly after medical marijuana was legalized in the state in September 2016.

Cresco was one of 12 businesses selected earlier this month from 109 applicants to run Ohio's large marijuana farms of up to 25,000 square feet.

The Yellow Springs facility will include 25,000 square feet of growing space plus 25,000 square feet of offices, harvesting and packaging rooms, according to Bachtell, who also has marijuana growing and retail operations in Illinois and Pennsylvania.

It will incorporate the latest indoor commercial agriculture technology and environmental controls.

"Calling it a greenhouse almost does it a disservice,'' Bachtell said. "I like to call it a super technologically advanced warehouse with a translucent roof on top.''

The project promises to have a direct economic impact on the Yellow Springs community, including at least 150 new construction jobs and dozens of full-time employees once completed, according to Bachtell.

And he said his company is proceeding with construction as planned despite threats from state and local officials to freeze the recently awarded cultivation licenses after discovering that one of the consultants hired to score applications was a convicted drug dealer.

"Everybody needs to step back and remember that this is a medical law that was passed specifically to help patients in Ohio,'' Bachtell said. Freezing the licenses "would be doing a disservice to the patients and people of Ohio, and the law that was passed.''

The drug charges were first revealed by Cincinnati-based investor Jimmy Gould of Green Light Acquisitions, who applied for a growing license in Wilmington, Ohio, but was denied.

Gould has since threatened to sue the Ohio Department of Commerce, which oversees the growing, processing and testing parts of Ohio's medical marijuana program, and called for the selection process to be started over again because of the application grader's drug conviction and other irregularities.

"Some people feel like they're entitled to one of the licenses, but that's not how it works,'' Bachtell said. "The right companies that are doing this for the right reason are the ones that get selected.''

Bachtell is confident that obtaining a grower's license will help him secure the marijuana processing and dispensary licenses in Ohio for which he has applied.



