MPX Bioceutical Corp. is almost ready to start a full build out of its planned medical marijuana production facility inside the former PPG plant and is hoping to be operational in Owen Sound by year’s end, according to the head of the company.

Scott Boyes, the North York-based firm’s president, CEO and chairman, said the interior building upgrades will cost several million dollars.

“We are supposed to get estimates from contractors this week. The planning for the layout is virtually done. I think the building permits have now been issued and we’re just about ready to engage a contractor,” he said in an interview.

The facility will be used for some cannabis cultivation, he said, but will focus more on the production side of the medicinal marijuana industry.

“There will be at least two full labs – one with the Panaxia Pharmaceutical people from Israel and another one for Salus, which is our own brand. So they will be doing oils and concentrates,” Boyes said.

“We will also be putting in a full kitchen in anticipation of the edibles market hitting us in the fall. But we’ll be focusing on the medical market, not on the consumer market, which is different delivery methods.”

Owen Sound city hall confirmed that building permits for the MPX project are expected to be issued this week.

A permit for interior renovations has a construction value of $450,000, while a plumbing permit lists the value of work at $50,000.

“We’d love to have a licence and be running by the end of the year,” Boyes said. “But that will depend on how quickly we can get some of the construction work done. We’re going to do it in phases simply because it allows us to get up and running faster.”

MPX, formerly the Canadian Bioceutical Corp., applied to Health Canada in January 2015 to become a licenced producer of marijuana for medical purposes.

The application was submitted after the company signed a letter of intent with ANDPET Realty to lease part of the former PPG plant.

The company’s licenced producer application reached the detailed review and initiation of security clearance process stage in August 2017 and MPX began some construction work on its 72,300-square-foot Owen Sound facility.

Last October, city council approved a site plan application from ANDPET Realty for its Peninsula Pro Growth Business Park property, which includes the remaining 251,000-square-foot section of the former PPG factory at the southeast corner of 16th Avenue and 20th Street East.

The plan calls for dividing building into several units, including one for the two-storey medical marijuana production facility.

MPX also owns Canveda, a licenced medical marijuana producer that this week received its sale for medical purposes and standard processing licences from Health Canada for its facility in Peterborough. The licence will allow Canveda to start selling its own products directly to registered patients for medical purposes.

Boyes said Health Canada will not approve MPX’s licenced producer application for the Owen Sound site – the licences are site-specific – until the building upgrades are finished and the facility is ready for planting cannabis.

“We have our facility in Peterborough now so the fact that you have one going usually makes getting the second location a little easier,” he said.

“And we’ve got a full team and the security screenings all done. So the next step is to build out the Owen Sound facility and then Health Canada will come in and inspect it and then they say you can plant your first crop and then when the first crop is finished they actually give you a licence. So it’s still a lengthy process, but not as bad as it was.”

He said the main reason MPX purchased Canveda was to accelerate the approval process for the Owen Sound facility.

MPX also has an agreement with Panaxia, which will supply non-active ingredients and compounds for MPX’s smokeless pharma-grade cannabinoid products.

MPX will employ roughly 60 people at its Owen Sound facility once fully operational, Boyes said.

The company is focusing in Canada on “the production, distribution and retailing of high-quality cannabis distillates and derivative products for the domestic medical and adult use markets.”