Certificate of Occupancy and Retail Marijuana Cultivation Facility license

[deftron]

Does anybody have experience with this process? I searched around a bit and didn't see much

I have the opportunity to get my I-A building CO'd and I figure if I do that I might as well apply for a wholesale license or Retail Marijuana Cultivation Facility license

So specifically I'm wondering;

Does this work like one would think? Driving around wholesaling, paying taxes, monitored by the state etc?

How is the market for top shelf brands currently doing and where do you see it going (sale price,taxes,demand)?

What are some things in hindsight you wish you knew before applying?

According to the architect, my building will not be that hard to get up to current code due to it's small size (under 2000sqft), what surprises did Denver spring on you that you or your general contractor/engineer did not anticipate?

I feel very lucky to have a chance to be a little guy in this corporate takeover and but I do wonder if it's still even viable or worth it

Any help would be appreciated

 

[xavier7995]

I am of no help, but good luck and hope you let us know what you find out. I have done a bit of looking and have not been very encouraged by what I have found in terms of it being viable for a small operator.

 

[bsgospel]

It becomes incredibly expensive, incredibly quick.

Not only does your building need to be up to code and fitted for smell control and security (2 smell complaints in Boulder is enough to have you shut down and a smell control plan submitted and approved by the state; dedicated physical servers and cloud service with as much as 40 days video stored + alarm user permit), it needs to be correctly zoned and follow neighborhood parameters.

You would need a red owners badge, which includes the last ten years of bank statements and IRS filings, clean background and stable business plan to present to the agency. Now you can apply for a license. We're up to a couple hundred thousand already.

You spend your first couple years just paying down the taxes these first few steps require. The market is shit. $1000/lb + ~27% tax on every transaction. And your clients are as big of flakes as they were in the old days.

Payroll + payroll taxes + insurance + CO2 user permit + storage of hazardous materials permit (y'know, fulvics) + fire hazard inspections and extinguisher certifications + sprinkler systems inspection + pesticide use permit + proper pesticide disposal + operating/production costs (electrical/HVAC/water) + all plants and finalized wholesale packages tagged with RFID + your bank account occasionally gets frozen and your sprinkler riser room freezes at the same time and you spill 10,000 gallons, earning you a citation from the fire department. Then you find out that you can't actually write off certain construction costs because you contracted it in the wrong order/to the wrong person/to yourself improperly.

Oh and then you have one bad crop or some dipshit brings in mites during a tour. Or you bring in clones which have residual eagle 20 and now all the plants in building have to be shredded. Or you tried to pop seeds or bring in your own clones and they're not compliant/recognized by the state as legal. *wood chippers hum in the distance*

You get to harvest and submit a sample from each batch for potency and microbial testing...and what if none of them pass microbial/pesticide testing? You can resubmit upto three times and if you still don't pass you're forced to offload it to some hash/shatter maker for $500/lb who will blow it out for full profit and little return to you.

Totally forgot! The tiers! As a tier 1 license you may only grow up to 1800 plants at a time, including veg! You have to demonstrate a certain level of sales and tax payments in a given year to prove that you're capable or worthy of growing up to 3600 plants.

I used to think $1 million would be enough to get into this racket. Wouldn't touch it with 5 million now.