BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Planning Board approved the plan for a $200 million manufacturing facility at 310 Ship Canal Parkway that will primarily be used to grow marijuana.
Construction is set to begin, so long as building permits are approved by the city, in the first quarter of 2021.
"We're just excited to finally have an opportunity to get started with our project," said Brad Termini, Zephyr Partners CEO. "New York State has made such amazing progress over the last few months in advancing the program that we feel encouraged to get things one of our products on the list.
The planning board held a public meeting Monday night were several residents expressed concern about odor emitting from the facility--drawing comparisons to the General Mills plant and the usually pleasant smell of fresh cereal blanketing the city.
"These concerns are common in any community across the country where cannabis cultivation has gone in," Termini said. "New York State is going to have some of the most strict regulations to deal with a lot of issues, but one of them will be smell mitigation. and our facility will need to follow implemented mitigation consistent with those regulations."
New York State is currently authoring these regulations. Termini said it would be ambitious if they were released by the end of the year.
The planning board first had to review and approve a waterfront consistency plan developed by Zephyr Partners. That study is mandatory for waterfront development, part of the overall local waterfront redevelopment plan instituted by the city.
Zephyr Partners has stated that the project is expected to create up to 800 jobs.