GALLATIN GATEWAY — Inside a sheet metal-walled warehouse are exposed two-by-fours dividing the dark space into open rooms. Cardboard shipping boxes and a forklift are the warehouse’s only inhabitants for now. When it’s complete, the building will house nearly 6,000 cannabis plants.
A group of engineers came together to build this warehouse with hopes to revolutionize large-scale production in the cannabis industry. With the Gallatin County Commission’s approval this week the lease the warehouse, owner Niles Hushka and Aspen Springs Leasing are one step closer to building a cannabis growing community.
“We’re changing the industry,” Hushka said at the commission meeting. “This is the demonstration facility.”
Hushka and his colleague Shari Eslinger hope that this building, which they designed from the ground up with help from members of the cannabis industry and other consultants, will act as a model for future growing operations.
Aspen Springs Leasing is providing the platform for growers, but they won’t actually do any of the growing or processing of the plant. The company will lease out the space to an experienced, fully licensed grower, and give them the keys to a marijuana growing machine.
At one of the completed buildings on the site, which acts as an office space for Aspen Springs Leasing and Aspen Springs Consulting, Eslinger said that cannabis growers who will use the space can share a flow of ideas to better their growing process, and subsequently generate a better product.
