From NBA to THC: Chris Webber to Open a Cannabis Facility in Detroit
Former NBA star Chris Webber unveiled his plans of opening a multi-million dollar marijuana business in his native city of Detroit. What he called a ‘cannabis compound’ will create a lot of jobs and opportunities. Among other things, it will include a training facility that will give crash courses on ‘budtending’ and cannabis cultivation and help students with job placement.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday opened a 180,000-square-foot facility along Michigan Avenue. Webber’s firm has invested $50M in this project, and it’s set to expand. The company will construct another 80,000 square feet worth of real estate in southwest Detroit and spend another $125 million.
Giving Back to the Community
A Detroit native, Webber thinks about moving back to Michigan. He said that he’d been helping local communities over the past 20 years but now felt the need to live here to do more.
For him, this new venture is of the highest priority and his main goal is to remedy some of the injustices suffered by minorities during decades of prohibition. Besides training for new jobs in the nascent cannabis market, Webber said his compound would have offices for those who wanted to have their criminal records expunged. These services will be available to anyone, not just those who want to work in the cannabis industry.
Big Plans Unveiled
The firm carrying out this project is called Players Only Holdings. It was co-founded by the basketball hall-of-famer himself and entrepreneur Lavetta Willis. They want to complete the first phase of the project by March 2022. As for phase II, there’s no timeline yet. The total cost will amount to $175 million.
The currently functioning facility, called Webber Wellness Compound, is the first tangible result after Webber and other investors launched a cannabis fund in February to help underrepresented minorities start their marijuana businesses. The idea is that black and other ethnic communities most impacted by the war on drugs should be able to share in the windfall of revenue and opportunity generated by the cannabis industry.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday opened a 180,000-square-foot facility along Michigan Avenue. Webber’s firm has invested $50M in this project, and it’s set to expand. The company will construct another 80,000 square feet worth of real estate in southwest Detroit and spend another $125 million.
