Lakeport Brewing entrepreneur sows seeds for eastern Ontario weed tourism
Former LCBO chairman and CEO partners with beer baron to transform a particle board factory into a cannabis hotel and spa
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You used to know you were nearing the eastern Ontario towns of Bancroft and Hastings Highlands by the 24-hour, high-frequency buzzsaw sound that emitted from the local particle board factory.
“You could hear it for miles and miles,” says entrepreneur William Sharpe, who owns Lakeport Brewing Company.
But in 2002, the buzzing noise stopped when the company shut down — taking jobs away with it.
“Bancroft lost 300 jobs,” Sharpe says. “In a town of 3,400 people, that’s 10 percent of the total population.”
Sharpe and former LCBO chairman and CEO Andrew Brandt are partnering to bring a new buzz to the region. With their new company, Aeroponleaf Canada, they want to transform the old GP Flakeboard building into a state-of-the-art, licensed cannabis growing facility and tourist destination, with plenty of job opportunities for area residents.
The vision: an adult cannabis park
Beginning with a cannabis cultivation facility, Sharpe envisions an adult destination park, where tourists could stay overnight at the lodge and enjoy experiences like a massage, fine dining, river kayaking, snowmobiling, ATV riding and maybe a place to have a home-brewed beverage or two.
“What we’re doing is putting a cannabis beverage facility that’ll do all kinds of different beverages, bottled water with CBD — that’s good for health — we could do (non-alcoholic) lime rickey or lemonade,” he says.
Sharpe’s team has applied for cultivation, extraction and sales licences, and there are also plans to obtain a cannabis wellness lodge licence, which would be a first for Canada.
Built alongside the York River in the mid-1800s, and sustained by the mining and lumber industries, the neighbouring towns of Bancroft, Hastings Highlands and Birds Creek sit smack dab between Toronto and Ottawa. The sprawling wilderness of Algonquin Park, which brings in 800,000 visitors annually, is less than a 40-minute drive away. There is also a main road leading north that connects drivers to the Highway 60 corridor for a picturesque drive through the heart of the park.
The region is typical of Ontario cottage country, with lakes, forests, parks, golf courses, cultural and sporting events, plenty of recreation trails and a small population rich in established families and retirees.
Plenty of room to grow
Sharpe claims the community doesn’t just want cannabis tourism in the area, but people want to work there too. He says he’s been getting requests from retirees in the medical and security fields — and even local cannabis growers — who are interested in jobs close to home.
“I made a commitment to the community at the town hall that I held that we would be hiring people from the Bancroft area first and foremost, and then if there are specialized jobs that require university training, we would have to fill them with somebody with experience,” Sharpe says. Specialized training may not be required for office jobs or cutting and trimming cannabis plants, while other roles such as master grower would.
Sharpe says he wants to outfit the local Loyalist College campus, which offers a Cannabis Applied Science course at its Belleville campus, with aeroponic systems that could be used to train new employees who want to be involved in the growing process.
“The economic boost to our community will have far-reaching benefits and we anticipate that the added revenue from associated industries in the area and employment opportunities for residents will be extraordinary,” Hasting Highlands Mayor Vic Bodnar wrote on his Facebook page in February.
“It’s a perfect setting for us because not only will we employ a lot of people in the Bancroft area, but we’’ll revive the entire downtown business community that people stop at,” adds Sharpe. He says the company does not yet have revenue projections.
If they build it, will you come?
The areas southeast of Algonquin Park are somewhat of a blank slate, with few reasons for travellers to stop and stay longer than it takes to have lunch and fill the gas tank, but that’s not to say that improvements can’t be made.
“We have to go back to people, and get into the psychology of what it’s like to be on vacation,” says Jennifer Mason, president of JLM Strategic Marketing and organizer of November’s New Heights: Cannabis Tourism Summit. “When you go on vacation, you want to go to an interesting destination, you want to meet new people, learn a bit about the culture and history, see some art, experience some events, and taste some food, and then also try some wine and cannabis.”
Sharpe says he has approval from the county for on-site retail, a brewery, a lodge and additional river-side condos. He further plans to partner with local businesses to create as many services and experiences as possible to sell to the consumer.
Town reps have also approved cannabis shops, although there seem to be no plans for a store anywhere in the foreseeable future. As of now, the closest cannabis retail stores are Tokyo Smoke in Oshawa, Brock Street Cannabis in Kingston and three stores in Ottawa that include Hobo, Superette and Fire and Flower.
In Smiths Falls, home to Canopy Growth’s Tweed visitor centre, they are experiencing the same problem.
“We all know the retail situation is terrible and it’s hand-cuffing everybody, so that’s a real problem,” Mason contends. “The other problem is that you have a town like Smiths Falls, host to the biggest cannabis company in the world, and they employ over 2,000 people. You can visit their factory, they can grow it and sell it legally. But you can’t purchase it anywhere in Smiths Falls.”
If either location will succeed in becoming Canada’s a cannabis tourist destination, the barriers to buying cannabis will have to be addressed.
Where to go for cannabis tours
Some small-scale examples of cannabis tourism exist in places ranging from California to Southeast Asia, but legal canna-tourism is only just starting to emerge in Canada. This leaves Sharpe and his team with few models on which to base their cannabis wonderland.
In West Hollywood, where cannabis tourism is expected to bring in US$5 million to US$7 million in tax revenue annually, voters approved extra taxation on cannabis businesses, like delivery services and cannabis consumption lounges.
On the other side of the world, Thailand’s new tourism and sports minister, Pipat Ratchakitprakan, is already talking about cannabis tourism for wellness-seekers; a plan that includes detox regimens, Thai massage and cannabis education courses.
But nothing beats boxing legend Mike Tyson’s entré into cannabis tourism, brought to life when he opened his own cannabis ranch in the 15,000-resident town of California City, Calif. When completed, the idea is that the 20-acre ‘Tyson Ranch’ will have a ‘Tyson Cultivation School’, an amphitheatre, luxury camping area and cabins.
In hurricane-ravaged Antigua and Barbuda, where thousands of holiday-makers go every year, the boxing legend also has his sights on developing a luxury cannabis farm alongside other projects, including entertainment, leisure and accommodation.
Aerponleaf Canada’s primary investor group, Canada Tenkey, runs high-end road trip tours that host visitors from Asia. Sharpe says the group is considering plans to create an allied tour between Bancroft and Smiths Falls that would join the two proposed cannabis destinations.
When can visitors expect to visit?
The goal is to have things up and running by 2020, Shape says. However, that will likely only be phase one, which includes about 10,000 sq. ft. of licensed cultivation space, plus some lodging. Phase two should begin in 2021, completing the development of the 200,000 sq. ft. of building left to fill.
Right now, the building has equipment left over from GP Flakeboard, waiting to be removed and shipped to its new owners around North America, he says. Only then can the space be filled with aeroponic equipment.
By this time next year, Sharpe estimates the facility will be ready for inspection by Health Canada. Of course, everything hinges on the approval of the necessary licences.
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