4Front Ventures has entered into definitive agreements with both the land owner and an affiliate of Innovative Industrial Properties., to build an up to 558,000 square foot cultivation and production facility in Illinois. In summary, the agreements provide for IIPR to acquire the land for $6.5m and fund the approximately $45m buildout of phase one of the facility which will be leased back to 4Front in the form of a 20-year lease with two five-year extensions at the Company’s option.
“Our thesis is simple.” noted 4Front CEO Leo Gontmakher, “Bring tried-and-true cultivation and manufacturing methods from Washington State to large adult-use markets like Massachusetts, Illinois and California. Washington State was and is a highly competitive battleground in which our facilities, over a six year period, honed processes to achieve significant efficiencies and cost savings across a wide array of products. It is over this period that our facilities were forced to learn how to make high quality product at below industry cost, enabling significant profitability despite plummeting wholesale prices.
The first phase of the buildout will constitute 258,000 square feet of building, comprising 65,000 square feet of flowering canopy and approximately 70,000 square feet of manufacturing space for the development of 4Front’s branded flower, edibles, tinctures, concentrates and other manufactured products. Phase 1 is expected to be operational by Q4 2022.
The subsequent phase(s) of the buildout will add an additional 300,000 square feet of facility to meet market demand. 4Front plans to hire more than 240 employees to its cultivation and production teams during Phase 1.
For more information:
4 Front Ventures
www.4frontventures.com