Cannabis company Natrabis broke ground on a new marijuana cultivation facility in Orion Township on Thursday.

The 54,000 square feet marijuana cultivation facility is at 4601 Liberty Drive South, between Brown Road and Giddings Road across from General Motors Lake Orion Assembly Plant.

Orion Township Supervisor Chris Barnett and former state senator Matt Dunaskiss joined Natrabis founders Nick Simpson, Michael Thomas and Ben Puraj and general contractor Quadrate Construction, and business partners for the groundbreaking.

The project will bring roughly 65 new jobs to the area, according to information from Natrabis marketing contact Sherrie Handrinos, CEO and president of Boost One Marketing.

“The project will be one of the most technically advanced marijuana cultivation facilities in the state of Michigan, with its own processing center and development plans for five retail locations, two of which are slated for Southeast Michigan,” according to the company.

Natrabis expects the cultivation facility to be completed and operational between February and April 2021.

The company plans to build another 54,000 square-foot facility in Michigan and multi-state expansion plans include Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.

Natrabis has completed $1.1 million in underground and site work on the 5.5-acre Lake Orion facility. The company plans to use “a highly sophisticated design and cultivation processes to reduce their environmental footprint, improve quality and operating efficiency, and reduce waste.”

The new facility will utilize “a state-of-the-art Rhythm fertigation system that houses a built-in environmentally friendly plant run reclaim.”

The development also includes “a $4 million state-of-the-art HVAC system” to recapture Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning “condensation through an underground filtration system to be recycled into clean water to help irrigate approximately 20,000 plants,” according to Natrabis.

The Natrabis internal processing facility will use a $2 million on-site lab, outfitted by Troy, Michigan-based Precession Extraction.

The Natrabis facility isn’t the first marijuana facility in Orion Township.

The Oakland Business Park on Premier Drive – which is a separate development from the Natrabis project – broke ground in late 2018 on a $40 million development that will consist of three buildings and will have marijuana growers, processors, secure transporters and safety compliance tenants, developers said.

The Orion Township Board of Trustees approved an ordinance allowing marijuana growers, processors, secure transporters but did not approve retail marijuana facilities within the township. – By Jim Newell