OAKLAND — A deal has been struck to build a cannabis-cultivation complex in an Oakland industrial district that could produce a metric ton of marijuana a year.
Terra Tech, a Southern California agricultural company that focuses on production of cannabis, has agreed to lease a 13,000-square-foot building off Hegenberger Road near the Oakland International Airport, said Evan Nison, a Terra Tech representative.
A deal has been struck to construct a cannabis cultivation complex in an Oakland industrial district, potentially creating a facility that can produce a metric ton of marijuana a year. (Terra Tech web site)
Terra Tech declined to provide a more precise location of the facility, citing security reasons.
“This new facility will bring scale to our cannabis production capacity,” said Derek Peterson, Newport Beach-based Terra Tech’s chief executive officer.
Terra Tech estimated that the complex should be able to produce more than 1 metric ton a year of “premium-grade cannabis” once it’s up and running.
“We expect our expanded capacity to drive sales of our IVXX premium cannabis products in California, which is our leading market, as demand continues to strengthen,” Peterson said.
Terra Tech created a beachhead in the East Bay cannabis market with a purchase in January 2016 of Blum Oakland, a retail medical cannabis dispensary based in Oakland.
The deal gave Terra Tech access to Blum’s fully integrated supply chain, which consists of Blum’s onsite cultivation facility, its portfolio of proprietary strains and its high-volume retail storefront. At the time of the acquisition, Blum’s revenues were running at $14 million a year.
The Blum Oakland purchase appears to have given Terra Tech a huge sales boost. For the 12 months that ended in September, Terra Tech’s revenue totaled $20.4 million, but it lost $17.1 million over the same period.
Construction of the Oakland cannabis-cultivation complex should be complete by the end of September. Full production is expected to begin by the end of December.
Terra Tech and Blum Oakland said they have been working closely with Oakland’s planning, building and fire officials to develop the new facility.
“We built on our experience from previous designs and projects to streamline this construction process as we expand our capacity to meet the burgeoning demand in the emergent cannabis industry,” said Salwa Ibrahim, executive director of Blum Oakland.
