Throughout the U.S., lifeless factories dot the urban landscape in homage to shifts in consumer preferences, company consolidation, and the offshoring of manufacturing jobs. One such facility is a vacant 104,000 square-foot building in Pueblo County, Colorado.
It used to house hundreds of workers bottling Pepsi products. And if Doyen Elements has its’ way, a number of those jobs could return. After a decade of obsolescence, the company wants to turn the former plant into one of the state’s largest indoor marijuana growing facilities.
Doyen Elements is a holding company that positions itself as a real estate, research, and operations consultant for the legal cannabis industry. And while the company has targeted a number of facilities across the country, it hopes to have this former bottling plant ready to produce up to 70,000 pounds of marijuana flower a year by 2019.
With an unemployment rate hovering over seven percent, the promise of as many as 160 jobs has many in Pueblo County ready to join a new and growing industry. According to the Washington, D.C.-based research firm New Frontier, the legal cannabis market has a current value of $7.2 billion, but could reach over $24 billion within the next three years.
This is with a near even split between sales of medical and recreational marijuana products. New Frontier bases these projections on trends from the 28 states (and the District of Columbia) where medical marijuana is allowed, as well as the seven states where recreational cannabis is legal.
Furthermore, New Frontier is projecting that the workforce could nearly double to 300,000 workers in the growing, production, distribution, and sales of related products. More than half of that market value emanates from three states – California, Colorado, and Washington – all of which also permit recreational use.
In addition to the market growth, Doyen likes the Pueblo plant’s built-in air filtration system that could be retrofitted for growing marijuana plants. The company also plans to automate the facility with robotic harvesting equipment and next generation automation.
The industry is welcomed in Pueblo County, where officials say the annual tax revenue generated exceeds $4M.