Abandoned Pepsi Factory Turned into Massive Grow Op

We’ve all enjoyed reading about the various abandoned mansions, idol factories and underground nuclear bunkers, which clever cannabis cultivators have quietly put to good use in England…until they got caught.

Now, on our side of the pond, we have our very own abandoned factory that has been vacant for a decade and will soon be reincarnated into a huge indoor marijuana grow.

Pepsi hits the spot, the sweet spot that is.

Doyen Elements, which is a holding company that leases real estate properties out to legal cannabis companies, just bought an old Pepsi bottling plant in Pueblo County, Colorado.

Once completed in 2019, the facility could potentially produce up to 70,000 pounds of flower a year.

According to a recent report in Forbes, the company is one of the lucky real estate investment firms that are making money from legal weed without actually touching the plant.

Pueblo County, which was struggling to recover from the steel-market crash of 1982, has become the pot rush town for the booming legal weed industry.

In fact, Pueblo County approved the world’s first marijuana-funded college scholarship two years ago, and now the concept is gathering steam elsewhere.

Doyen Elements CEO, Geoff Thompson, said the same technology that provided the air filtration system that sucked carbon dioxide out of the air in the Pepsi plant can be used to inject CO2 in the grow rooms and feed the pot plants, improving yield up to 30 percent. Who knew?

According to Business Insider, Doyen Elements also plans to team up with a robotics company to bring in trimming robots capable of uprooting plant cuttings used for cannabis breeding and sending them on a conveyor belt to their destination.

Thompson, a serial entrepreneur who has worked in real estate and financial services, said Doyen Elements will assist in all operations—without ever touching the plant.

Why would they not want to touch the plant?

Judging by the fact that over the last year, the company has gobbled up 16 small businesses across real estate, logistics, consulting, financial services, R&D and green technologies to help marijuana growers who lease, maybe they’re too busy.

Doyens has another reason: the company wants to capitalize on the fast-growing market without dealing directly with a Schedule I drug.

“We like to say we can do everything for [legal cannabis operators] other than me physically going in there and trimming plants,” Thompson told Business Insider.

You can keep up with all of HIGH TIMES’ marijuana news right here.