Fitchburg, Massachusetts, a relatively small city in Worcester County, has transformed itself into a mega town for marijuana.
Converting an old wire-making factory into a cannabis cultivation operation, Garden Remedies was the first to move to Fitchburg in 2016. Since then, six other companies have created similar set ups within the city’s limits and six others are in the pipeline.
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“They’ve been very accommodating to us here in Fitchburg,” said Kyle Vigeant, vice president of Cultivation for Garden Remedies, as he gave a tour of their Fitchburg facility. “And, as you can see, we grow a lot of weed here.”
Fitchburg’s history as a factory town of paper mills, shoemakers and machine manufacturers has made it an ideal location for the fledgling cannabis industry, in need of sprawling buildings where rows of plants can grow, and rooms of chemistry equipment can be housed while meeting industry safety requirements. Since much of the manufacturing companies have moved out, the marijuana industry has moved in.
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“We haven't been actively recruiting them because we've laid the foundation and everything is in place,” said Mary Jo Bohart, Fitchburg’s director of economic development. “The locations exist, the zoning is good, the processes we have our smooth. They continue to find us.
“So, could we see more? We might.”
According to tax records, Fitchburg has collected $4 million in tax revenue to date from cannabis cultivation businesses. Collectively, they occupy about one million square feet of property across the city.
Eight years ago, as Fitchburg worked long hours to meet a state-imposed deadline for cannabis zoning rules, they were also fighting a population of 42,000 residents, unsure marijuana would be a good fit for their community.
The recently elected mayor, Samantha Squailia, says a consistently growing number of people are evolving on the issue.
“What we have seen over the last six, seven years is that there really has been very little impact at all to our community in a negative way. But we've seen a lot of positive impacts, impacts with the jobs, with the tax revenue,” Mayor Squailia said.
There may be anxious days ahead, however. Falling cannabis prices and federal laws threaten industry survival. In Fitchburg, that could mean cultivators closing, consolidating, or some in the pipeline, never opening at all.
