Arrested three years ago for growing cannabis, Paul Sayegh, through the legacy-to-legal pipeline, is today the owner of Canna P Farm, the first indoor cultivation facility to gain approval in Newark. His proposal for a three-story, 67,000-square-foot indoor farm at 171 Foundry Street in the Ironbound got the thumbs up from the Planning Board last month. It is one of only five cultivation facilities permitted within the city's borders.
"Newark is the gateway city and I think it's the perfect place to launch a cannabis brand that emphasizes the culture and lifestyle around recreational cannabis," Sayegh said. "Newark is on the rise with many real estate development projects and specifically with cannabis, it represents the biggest impact zone in New Jersey."
More than 100 dispensaries have opened statewide, with a slew in Newark alone (another dispensary is being proposed on Halsey Street), together generating nearly $2 billion in sales since 2018. However, the cultivation side of the industry has lagged and that poses a major problem to the market as some experts fear an impending shortage in supply.
A few factors seem to stand in the way of more approvals for these facilities. One is public perception. Art Hance's Franklin Township-based construction firm Hance Construction built one of the state's first cannabis farms and he remembers hearing all types of opposition from residents of Morris County, where the farm was eventually built. They worried the cannabis plants would be flushed into the nearest river and get people high. Others thought addicts would loiter outside the facility.
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