A ground-breaking ceremony will take place in Kelowna on Thursday afternoon for a 50,000 square-foot cannabis research and development facility.

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A ground-breaking ceremony for a 50,000-square foot building will take place in Kelowna on Thursday afternoon.

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Yet this is no normal ceremony: It involves Miracle-Gro and cannabis.

This week, the Flowr Corporation and Hawthorne Canada, a subsidiary of Scotts Miracle-Gro, announced that they will hold a ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of a cannabis research and development facility. The building will be adjacent to Flowr’s 85,000 square-foot cultivation facility on McCarthy Road.

A close-up of a cannabis plant. Flowr Corporation

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The two facilities are expected to create upwards of 200 jobs in Kelowna.

Several dignitaries are expected to attend, including MP Stephen Fuhr, MLAs Norm Letnick and Steve Thomson, Kelowna mayor Colin Basran plus Flowr Corporation and Hawthorne and Miracle-Gro executives.

An employee trimming part of a cannabis plant. Flowr Corporation

READ MORE: Cannabis legalization and the workplace

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In a press release, the Flowr Corp. and Hawthorne Canada Ltd., said in March they had formed a research and development alliance.

As part of the alliance, Hawthorne is funding the construction of the cannabis research and development facility. The facility will include laboratories, indoor and greenhouse grow suites, training areas and genetics breeding areas in a single building. Flowr says it expects to develop and test Hawthorne cultivation systems such as lights and fertilization and irrigation systems in the facility. Flowr will also research genetics and cultivation data analytic systems in the facility.

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