IONIA — A medical marijuana provisioning center is opening in Ionia.

ArCanna opens its flagship medical marijuana retail store on Monday, June 29, in Ionia, said co-founder David Bye. ArCanna is located at 29 Beardsley St. in Ionia. Full information about ArCanna is available on its website: arcannami.com.

The provisioning center is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, Bye said. ArCanna’s provisioning center is employing 15 people. There will be up to 45 additional jobs once the production facilities come fully online, with potential future greenhouse expansion.

“We’re really welcomed here,” Bye said. “We look forward to serving the community.”

The executive team for ArCanna has 45 years of collective experience with marijuana — starting with Michigan’s Medical Marijuana patient framework and a retail chain of indoor hydroponics supplies, Bye said.

After founding Big Green Tomato, a hydroponics center in Battle Creek, Bye said he wanted to make sure the state had laws to a level where he and others would be comfortable growing into a company such as ArCanna.

Bye envisions ArCanna becoming a top five highest tech facility in the state, with an expansion plan in place to provide more jobs in the community should the Ionia City Council vote to allow recreational marijuana businesses in the area. ArCanna could have as many as 100 employees if it expands to include recreational marijuana, Bye said.

“Once adult use comes into play, we’ll be able to expand our workforce,” he said.

The company passed its state qualifications and licensing requirements “with flying colors,” Bye said. It purchased its facility in August 2019.

Retail space includes a set of windows throughout that peer into the production facility, with the aim of sharing the process for cultivating marijuana, according to a press release from ArCanna. Onsite cultivation will start soon, Bye said.

Bye said ArCanna wants to engage with the community of Ionia. ArCanna has used local contractors for the build project and has invested in the Ionia Theatre, Habitat for Humanity and Soaring Above Ionia Teen Center.

A Battle Creek native, Bye said his partners on the executive team have lived in Michigan.

“We all converged on Ionia as a place to be a sophisticated government with a small-town atmosphere,” Bye said.

Bye said ArCanna looked to use as many local contractors as it could. He said it’s important to give back to the community.

“We do that because it’s a lifeblood,” Bye said. “If you don’t spread it around and distribute it prosperity it doesn’t seem to make sense.”

— Contact reporter Evan Sasiela at esasiela@sentinel-standard.com. Follow him on Twitter @SalsaEvan.