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Wagner believes that relationship has made all the difference in terms of managing timelines, delivering on expectations and delivering on the quality of work, especially through COVID.

Holt officially broke ground in June. Expectations are to have the construction project completed by the fall of 2022.

The project, just under a total of 50,000 square feet, calls for a complete renovation of PharmaCann’s existing facility as well as tripling the greenhouse capacity for growing. It will finish construction on a greenhouse that was partially erected in the first round of construction on the site about six years ago and add a third indoor grow to the rear of the facility, bringing it to about three acres total for cultivation capacity and a complete renovation to bring the headhouse processing areas to good manufacturing practices (GMP) food processing pharmaceutical processing standards.

Christopher Chippa, Project Manager on the site and a Senior Project Manager at Holt said that extensive lead times had to be made in both manpower and materials as a result of the pandemic and the regulations tied to the medical marijuana industry.

“Everything from foam insulation to metal steel studs, you name it, electrical equipment, everything has been delayed and the dates keep changing so it’s like trying to hit a moving target. It’s why we try to do as much as we can, when we can, and look forward to precuring more of the materials that we need. Luckily in this job there are multiple phases and some of them will overlap,” said Chippa.

Chippa said there are about 130 trade members working on the project running multiple shifts.

He added, “We had to early on identify things that could have been 30 weeks out and we only had 15 weeks. OK, we’ve got to get that transformer ordered now, we’ve got to communicate with Central Hudson now, deal with all those things so lead times get absorbed. You have to get ahead of it before the project starts.”

Phillip Wagner, Operations Manager for PharmaCann

Wagner said they knew there was going to be challenges.

“We started this planning process going back into last year. Because of COVID we were dealing with PPE requirements, in the heat of the impact there was maximum employment density in areas, managing social distancing, hand washing capabilities, face masks, air exchanges we knew that stuff would be a barrier to manage on an active construction site,” he said, adding that everything was executed flawlessly with an agreement with the trades.

Among those working on the project are Darling Associates, Perreca Electric, MDS HVAC-R and Tri-State Drywall.

“The project will allow us to move to super-efficient cutting-edge LED technology for lighting, improving our air flow to improve the health and the quality of our plants and reduce the humidity that the plants demand. It will also improve the ergonomics and conditions for our employees to work on the plants, improve bench and racking systems to improve accessibility to the plants. They do take quite a bit of maintenance from topping to pruning and removing undergrowth and the harvest can be quite labor intensive,” said Wagner. Although PharmaCann is limited in a medical market only for cannabis products, Wagner says the company is preparing for future growth.

“At the height of the pandemic we did see increased demand for medical cannabis products, so we need to make sure we have the existing capacity and future capacity, even looking out 6-12 months. This expansion process has helped us to ensure that we’re able to serve those medical patients. Halfway through the year we did get the adult use planning process approved for New York State so we will make sure that we have the capacity available to even serve the future adult-use market in New York.

While the marijuana grow house is a first for Holt, Chippa said the construction company and its subs deal with it like any other project.

“Yes, it’s our first cannabis experience but when you get right down to it, all the drawings and specs, it all boils down to basic construction and we treat any room as we would any other medical facility.” He adds, “the best part about it has been enjoying and learning about their processes so you do have to take into consideration the harvest schedules and all the equipment and things that they need to produce their product.”

“It would have been easy for a contractor to come in and say, ‘yep, tear everything out, we need everything new,’ take that money and pocket the difference even though there was perfectly usable, perfectly accessible electrical equipment. But that’s the relationship we have with our vendors, our longtime contractors, like Perreca working with Holt and Chris, managing the construction project so that we can find those opportunities that result in cost-savings, increase safety and increase reliability. That is something we haven’t had from contractors in the past.”

Wagner circles back to the word “relationship” and how that has made a difference both financially and quality-wise for PharmaCann during the renovation and expansion project.