Ultra Health Tularosa marijuana cultivation facility to be ready Jan. 1

Nicole Maxwell
Alamogordo Daily News
The U.S. House and Senate have approved the 2018 Farm Bill that includes provisions to once again legalize industrial hemp farming. The bill is now waiting for an expected signature from the president.

TULAROSA - Ultra Health’s medical cannabis growing operation and distribution site near Tularosa is expected to be ready by Jan.1.

“Right now, we’re doing some construction at the facility,” Ultra Health Communications Manager Marissa Novel said. “For the future, we’re really thinking that this production facility could be a major hub for cannabis commerce.”

Ultra Health is working on continual production licenses for hemp growth for both their Tularosa growing facility and their Bernalillo growing facility.

Once the licenses have gone through, the facility should have plants in the ground, Novel said. The estimated time for that to happen is Jan. 1, she said.

More:Ultra Health files complaint against NMDOH over licensures

“We have plans for the Tularosa to be a major production and processing facility for the southern half of New Mexico,” Novel said. “This is particularly for, not only hemp farmers that are starting to grow hemp after the first of the year, but also for medical cannabis cultivation and for cannabis cultivation for adult use in the future.”

Close-up of rows of hemp in a field.

The Tularosa facility is the only major facility in southern New Mexico, Novel said.

“We believe that our Otero County facility will be providing product and different processed materials to cannabis dispensaries as far east as Clovis and even as far west as the New Mexico border,” Novel said.

 “Our primary concern is making sure that we have plants in the ground for hemp, so we can have product to later extract,” Novel said.

More:County supports cannabis producing site in Tularosa

A grand opening-type event has not been scheduled, Novel said.

Monetary benefits to Otero County include some gross receipts taxes and “this will be the epicenter for cannabis commerce” for this part of New Mexico, Novel said.

This is because the facility will be distributing to dispensaries and Ultra Health dispensaries will be helping farmers process hemp, she said.

Ultra Health on 607 N. White Sands Blvd., a medical cannabis dispensary, is officially open for business.

“Gross receipts are definitely a factor, but this is where everything is going to happen when it comes to cannabis in southern New Mexico,” Novel said. There were some hemp guidelines that were proposed in the 2017 state legislative session that were originally vetoed by Gov. Susana Martinez.

However, the vetoes were overruled by the state Supreme Court in April 2018 after finding the vetoes were unconstitutional.

Ultra Health is planning on growing three forms of cannabis for hemp: for feed, for fabric and for industrial. They will also be extracting the plant’s extracts for oils.

Bottles of hemp oil and hemp leaves sitting on a stone surface.

Novel also discussed adult-use recreational cannabis, predicting that January’s legislative session will be the most promising for cannabis legalization in history.

“Especially given the opportunities with adult use given that southern New Mexico has the longest continuous running border with Texas,” Novel said. “We are anticipating that once New Mexico legalizes cannabis for adult use, a lot of Texans will be coming to New Mexico to buy their cannabis and a lot of that will be coming from the Otero County facility.”

Novel said that Ultra Health is going to have representatives at the state legislative session this January.

More:NMSU regents approve hemp cultivation rule, open industry to NM farmers

The session starts Jan. 15 and ends March 16. Bills can be prefiled starting Monday, Dec. 17.

The facility is expected to hire 100 local employees and house the nation's most diverse cannabis cultivation operation.

It will include 20 acres of indoor cultivation in 20 air-supported, wind-assisted style greenhouses, 80 acres of outdoor cannabis fields, 100 acres of outdoor hemp fields and 120,000 square feet of production buildings.

The facility has been in the works since early 2018.