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Company cancels plans for marijuana facility in Kingsley

TheraCann

A Canadian company that wanted to build a $20 million medical marijuana facility in Kingsley has changed its plans. TheraCann says it still wants to do business in Michigan - just not in Kingsley.

Last month, the village council approved new rules that would allow TheraCann to go forward with its plans. But now those plans are canceled.

“We had to make a business decision," says Richard Goodman, TheraCann's president of U.S. operations. "At this point in time, it’s just not going to be Kingsley, unfortunately.”

Goodman says Kingsley just took too long to make a decision.

He says the company has “scaled back” its $20 million facility, and instead of acting as a sort of landlord for local marijuana growers, TheraCann now wants to do all the growing itself.

“You run into a lot of different issues when you have competitors at the same site," says Goodman. "We didn’t feel like it would be conducive for our efforts.”

Marc McKellar sits on Kingsley’s Downtown Development Authority board. During the community debate, he was one of TheraCann’s biggest cheerleaders. He couldn’t explain why TheraCann backed out.

“You know, I’m not really sure," says McKellar. "It sounds a little confusing to me. There may be some other issues going on there.”

McKellar says Kingsley’s rules would allow TheraCann to be the sole grower in its facility, and even though it took eight months for the new rules to pass, they did pass.

McKellar says Kingsley has had other growers interested in doing business in town.

Goodman says TheraCann is looking at four other possible sites in Michigan, but he won’t say where.