Great Eastern Hemp LLC has purchased a former sheltered workshop in New York’s Broome County for $2.2 million, a move that sets up the Binghamton area as one to watch in the Empire State’s burgeoning hemp industry. The 41,000 planned square feet of production space will join a growing market, where farmers are running into early supply chain bottlenecks and a pronounced need for contracts and buyers ahead of harvest.
The goal is to bring in another $11 million in investment to build out Great Eastern’s CBD extraction process. The Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin reports that the company is eyeing the 2020 harvest, sometime in September or October, for its operations to commence.
Broome County Agency Executive Director Stacey Duncan told WBNG that Great Eastern will bring 40 jobs to the area and a sudden cascade of tax revenue, noting that the building’s former occupant was a nonprofit.
Along with Great Eastern Hemp’s new venture, Broome County is home to Canopy Growth’s $150-million hemp processing plant. Elsewhere in the county, Southern Tier Hemp continues to work through delayed plans to purchase a former Gannett printing plant. And Castettler Sustainability Group Hemp (CSG Hemp), a local hemp collective based in Binghamton, has been partnering with local farmers since 2018.
