LAFAYETTE — A township-based hydroponic grower of leafy greens that supplies products to ShopRite and other tri-state markets is moving out to make way for a very different type of leafy green: cannabis.
The Lafayette Land Use Board in a special meeting held Wednesday night approved an application by the property owner at 152 Hampton House Road, currently the site of fresh salad greens producer Element Farms, to convert their existing operations into a cannabis cultivation site. The board’s 8-1 approval, with a lone dissent by member Susanne Van Sickle, will allow a team of cannabis cultivation experts to take over operations of an existing greenhouse to grow, manufacture and produce the plant.
Serdar Mizrakci, managing member of Spearmint Capital, a limited liability company that owns the property, is also the founder and CEO of Element Farms, which uses hydroponic pods and renewable energy to grow their greens. Mizrakci, who has been in operation since 2016, will not be part of the cannabis cultivation and plans to expand his unique operation elsewhere, hopefully at a site in the tri-state area, he said after Wednesday’s hearing.
Jan Carlos Byl, who spent several years in the 1990s in Amsterdam learning cannabis cultivation methods before consulting throughout the United States, will serve as chief operations officer at the greenhouse, which measures 67,000-square-feet on a 22-acre tract of land. The property bisects Hampton Township, but the two lots in question were…
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