The state’s Marijuana Control Board approved three license applications for Juneau businesses this week, including the first retail license in the capital city for Rainforest Farms.
“It felt really good. The application process is a lot of work. It feels like passing an exam type of feeling,” James Barrett, co-owner and co-operator of Rainforest Farms with his brother Giono Barrett, said on Friday.
James Barrett was at the two-day Marijuana Control Board meeting in Anchorage Wednesday and Thursday, while Giono Barrett stayed in Juneau to watch their plants. Rainforest Farms obtained their cultivation license and have been growing plants in a facility in Lemon Creek. The state inspected the plants a few weeks ago.
“Our plants are almost ready to flower, so we’re about two months away from harvesting. With our license being approved now for a retail store, that allows us enough time to get it ready and inspected for our harvest from our cultivation site,” Giono Barrett said.
[OK to grow, OK to go: Rainforest Farms puts pot in pots at Juneau’s first cannabis farm]
He hopes to be selling lab-tested cannabis flowers in their downtown retail space on Second Street in November. The store has been open since June selling apparel and closed at the end of August in order to remodel the store for the next two months.
“At first it’ll be a limited stock and we’ll see how long it lasts, and every two weeks to a month, I’ll be harvesting more,” Giono Barrett said.
James Barrett said it’s nice to be the first in Juneau to get the retail approval.
“It puts a lot of pressure on us because we want to do it right and there’s going to be a lot of people watching, but I think there are a lot of benefits that come with that, too,” he said. “Our approach is just to take it nice and slow, not rush anything and make sure that the quality is there for the consumer when they get the product.”
[Without much ado, city OKs first retail pot shop permit]
Before potentially opening to sell marijuana in November, Rainforest Farms still has other hoops to jump through, said Loren Jones, a member of the Marijuana Control Board and the Juneau Assembly.
“The city has yet to consider whether or not we will protest the [state retail] license. Every municipality has a right to protest, so we get notified that we have 60 days to act,” Jones said on the phone Friday.
Rainforest Farms would have to get a retail license from the city, then come the state inspections. First, an “empty shelf” check before marijuana is on the vicinity.
“If they pass that, they’re given their license,” Jones said. “Then at some point in time the state inspectors would come back and do a follow-up inspection once we thought they had product on the shelves.”
The follow-up inspection would ensure that the retail marijuana matches a tracking system that’s tied to the cultivation facility.
Jones said Juneau doesn’t yet have a testing facility — all cultivated marijuana for retail must be lab tested before it’s sold — so Rainforest Farms would need to either wait for one to be established in Juneau or show that product was tested at a facility elsewhere in the state.
Jones said all of this could be done by the Barrett’s timeline.
“November is still doable,” Jones said. “It just depends on everything working correctly.”
Top Hat gets green light
The Marijuana Control Board also approved a marijuana cultivation application to Juneau company Top Hat and a marijuana product manufacturing application to Top Hat Concentrates, which are both owned by John Nemeth, Ben Wilcox and restaurateur Tracy LeBarge.
“We’re excited to move forward. The reality is setting in,” Nemeth said on the phone Friday. He and Wilcox were at the meeting.
“It was a lot of hard work that required patience and diligence by a lot of different entities and the community and the state, and it’s all come together quite beautifully,” he said.
The processing and cultivation companies will be located in about 3,000-square feet at 2315 Industrial Boulevard, the same address as LeBarge’s seafood processor and store Hooked Seafood Company. Top Hat’s space and Hooked are separated by walls.
Nemeth said Top Hat is about to start construction work and plans to have the marijuana cultivation and processing facility up and running within six weeks or so.
The final approval of Top Hat Concentrates product manufacturing application is pending local inspections by the city and fire department, and inspection by the state board, Nemeth said.
“We have our conditional use permits through the city already for both entities and all of our waiting periods and things of that nature are completed,” Nemeth said. “So really it’s a matter of finishing up, getting inspected and we’ll be ready to go.”
• Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.
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