Opportunity for turnkey acquisition opens up in Canada

A rare turnkey greenhouse acquisition opportunity is being made available to potential purchasers. BMO Capital Markets has been engaged to offer for sale a 100% interest in a vertically integrated turnkey produce operation comprising production greenhouses, outdoor tray fields, greenhouse propagation operation, a cogeneration facility, a distribution center and packhouse, and ancillary supporting facilities located in Kingsville, Ontario, Canada.

The overall operation is of an industrial scale and is located across two sites comprising over 69 acres of greenhouse and 27 acres of propagation tray fields. The operation was recently retrofitted for strawberry production and propagation but is well suited for the production of a wide variety of general greenhouse agriculture crops. The on-site propagation operating platform is well-established for a scaled propagation business and could be configured for various operational alternatives.

The business is located in Kingsville, Ontario, the southernmost town in Canada, providing easy access to key transport routes and a variety of agricultural services, suppliers, and logistics networks on both sides of the border. The region is known for its established greenhouse industry and is home to the greatest concentration of greenhouses in North America.

The main production greenhouses comprise about 63.3 acres of growing area and benefit from significant recent capital improvement, including $24 million spent to retrofit and retool the facilities for strawberry production. The propagation operations are located in a 5.5 acre greenhouse and benefit from 27 acres of tray fields. The established propagation platform also benefits from excellent relationships and in-place licenses with a number of global genetics partners.

The on-site supporting facilities provide for the ability to integrate all processing, packaging, warehousing, and shipping activities at one site and include a best-in-class, fully conditioned 30,000 sf distribution center and 37,300 sf packhouse

The state-of-the-art cogeneration facility generates a total of 12 MW of electricity. The electric output is sold to the Ontario power grid via a CHP I IESO contract and also supplies power to the greenhouses. Heat and CO2 byproducts are also used to heat the greenhouses for year-round production and act as critical input for plant fertilization.