JWC Lear Facility Goes into Full Cannabis Production Mode
Ball Construction was awarded the contract to retrofit the former Lear Corp. auto parts plant into a state-of-the-art cannabis growing facility. Such facilities require special skill sets. Ball was a good fit for this challenging project because of our experience and knowledge of food grade production facilities for Health Canada approval.
As general contractor for the retrofit, Ball is overseeing many different subcontractors within an aggressive timeline. The multi-year plan is to devote the entire 350,000-square-foot building to cannabis production.
In November 2018, Phase One was completed. This involved readying 55,000 square feet of plant space in order to receive plants for transfer from the JWC1 site on Trillium Drive for immediate plant cultivation.
Phase One incorporated 8 custom flowering rooms, upgrading the HVAC system to control the environmental conditions, extensive electrical upgrades and installation of insulated metal panels for a hermetically sealed, sterile environment, which resulted in significant energy savings. We also upgraded offices, installed protected storage vaults and decontamination areas along with security components.
Phase One is now reaching full production capacity while Phase Two, which involves constructing three pods of flowering rooms, is now underway.
