By Susan K. Lamb Riverbend News
Suwannee County will soon be the home of Trulieve, the newest cannabis growing facility in the State of Florida. This new facility will be located near the Interstate 10 and CR 137 exit in Wellborn and will offer a minimum of 300 jobs, or as Suwannee County Economic and Tourist Development Director Jimmy Norris puts it, “It could be closer to 500 jobs once they are fully open!”
The facility, which will feature numerous buildings about 1.9 million square feet in total (or about 40 acres), will grow cannabis plants for medical purposes which are to be distributed through Trulieve’s 80 retail stores across Florida, Norris said. Purchase of any of these products require a doctor’s prescription, as well as proper identification.
Norris said Suwannee County has entered a contract with this new business, which is considered an agriculture business and does not require any permits just like tobacco, corn and other farm products. “I want to emphasize, they came to us,” Norris stressed. “They did not have to do that. Where tobacco used to be king here, this will be the new king.” Part of the agreement includes the wording, “The project is an agricultural activity conducted on agricultural lands and as such, is a bona fide farm operation on land classified as agriculture.”
“Technically speaking, they are agriculture, no different than growing orchids and they can come here and build anywhere they want, but they wanted to do it right and met with every single county commissioner individually and each commissioner went for tours, separately. Trulieve has not tried to hide anything and wanted to be open with the public,” Norris stated. “They don’t have to do any of this, but wanted to…they aren’t required to have county approval, but wanted to,” Norris pointed out. “They don’t have to pay permit fees, but wanted to,” Norris said. Norris added this new business in Suwannee County will be applying for all permits, which will cost more than $250,000.
Trulieve owns two other cannabis farms in Monticello and Madison and has storefronts in Lake City, Norris said. Norris pointed out Trulieve does not own the cannabis business in Hamilton County.
Norris said these facilities are not built with disposable materials, but rather they are built with red iron steel, very high tech and completely enclosed greenhouses.
“This is a real, legitimate, publicly traded company and we’re looking at a lot of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue here in Suwannee County from this business,” Norris pointed out. “The county has agreed to run water and sewer down CR 137 to this facility which will open more opportunities for other economic development in that area as well.”
“This is going to be a really big deal, there will be construction going on for the next few years, with millions of dollars spent,” Norris said. “Trulieve has been very intentional to be up front and I really appreciate that,” Norris commented. “They are going to be using so much power from Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC) that SVEC will have to build a new sub-station out there. SVEC had to get on board and work with them and did, for which I am very grateful.”
Norris said Trulieve has about 40-plus different varieties of cannabis which will be grown in this facility. “They grow for certain specific medical uses. It’s all for medical purposes,” Norris said. And it’s legal.
“There is no odor, no sound, no pollution and it’s one of the greenest projects you can imagine and one of the best for Suwannee County. If you drive by, no one will even know it’s there,” Norris suggested.
Norris said Trulieve has signed a letter of agreement with the county. “They wanted to sign a letter of agreement with the county letting everyone know what the county, the company and SVEC are going to do. They didn’t have to do any of that, but they wanted to do it right,” Norris stated.