Good Day Farm Arkansas LLC will be up and running by mid-2021. The new 42,000-square-foot cannabis facility is estimated to bring about 200 jobs averaging $19 an hour.
It will be at 3300 N. Hutchinson St., inside the Jefferson County Industrial Park that is sandwiched between the cities of White Hall and Pine Bluff.
By the time the operation is up and running, Alex Gray, a Little Rock attorney, said it is estimated that $25 million will have been invested.
He said the selection of Pine Bluff came down to a number of factors.
“We were looking for a facility that was a kind of manufacturing and warehouse facility that’s big enough to house what we’re doing,” he said. “We wanted to be located in an area that was a county that’s been identified as one that needs economic development growth.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
With Good Day Farm Arkansas, Jefferson County will have two cannabis operations; Natural State Medicinals is located near White Hall at Gravel Pit.
There are only eight licensed cultivators in Arkansas.
Good Day Farm Arkansas, a medical-marijuana cultivator licensed by the state, received approval last month from the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission to purchase Natural State Wellness Enterprises of Newport and to move the operation to Pine Bluff, according to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration.
Good Day Farm Arkansas will continue to operate from the Natural State Wellness Newport facility until the Pine Bluff site is ready to begin production, Gray said in a previous Pine Bluff Commercial article.
Most of the people hired for the Pine Bluff operation will be from Jefferson County, though he said some current employees in Newport will be offered jobs if they are willing to relocate.
In a recent, Scott Hardin, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, said the demand for medical marijuana is strong.
“Since the first dispensary opened in May 2019, Arkansans have spent $187 million to obtain 28,764 pounds of medical marijuana,” he said. “We anticipate sales will reach $200 million and 30,000 pounds by the end of December.”