Verano recently opened its first manufacturing center on the First Coast — its second in the state — and is already eyeing an expansion to the 42,000-square-foot facility in Palatka.
With that acquisition came a large manufacturing facility in Apollo Beach, dozens of retail locations and most importantly, a coveted license to grow, manufacture and distribute medical marijuana in Florida. The company has six grow rooms, three dry rooms, two vegetative areas, a “mom room,” a cloning room and a curing room — but Tipton said he is already eyeing a second phase that would double the production area at the site of a former call center near State Road 15.
All cured flower product must be shipped to the Apollo Beach facility for final packaging or further refinement into baked goods or oils, but Tipton said that will soon change once the plant expands.Verano’s portfolio encompasses active operations in 13 states, which includes 14 production facilities comprising over 1,00,000 square feet of cultivation.
The $20 million in renovations to the 115,000 square-foot processing facility that sits on 15.4 acres 39 miles west of Jacksonville will include a new kitchen for processing edibles such as chocolates and gummies and new extraction equipment, he said. Industry trade publication MJ Biz estimates Florida’s medical marijuana industry to be worth about $1.5 billion annually and expects growth to exceed $2 billion by 2025.