The legalization of marijuana in more than half the states is driving demand for high-tech cannabis grow facilities, but opportunities come with challenges in the embryonic industry.
"Cannabis is being grown at a scale never seen before," says Nathan Mendel, owner of Your Green Contractor, a subsidiary of Mendel and Co. Construction. "For projects in tens of thousands of square feet or acres, a different level of sophistication and automation is needed for irrigation, fertigation and lighting control systems that growers are learning as they go," Mendel says, adding, "Making sure you incorporate as much of that into the design as early as possible is one of the challenges."