Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer
Queensbury resident Nick Chiaravalle is proposing to construct a 30,084 square foot single-story building for cannabis growing, processing and distribution on Stone Quarry Road in Queensbury.
The 9.05 acre property is situated near the Queensbury Army National Guard recruiting office. The project goes before the town Planning Board with a public hearing on Thursday, June 20 at 7 p.m.
Mr. Chiaravalle’s company, Prime Arrow, LLC, purchased the site from Warren County for $115,000 last November.
“I feel like this site is a distance away from the residents and is a good location,” Mr. Chiaravalle said.
He expects the facility will cost around $10 million to build, and hopes to have it ready to go next spring.
Asked in a follow-up email how he is funding the $10-million, he replied “debt investment, financial institutions and also open invitation for second round of investors.” He said he read about “possible grant money that may be avail for cannabis farmers…but not sure on that.”
Mr. Chiaravalle grew up in Lake George and says he lived in California for nine years as an actor. He moved back to New York and worked in the family business — restaurants — before getting into food sales for 14 years, but says his company laid him off during the pandemic.
That’s when he transitioned to the cannabis industry. “I just decided to focus on this,” he says now. “This was my dream.”
Mr. Chiaravalle said that over 25 years ago he was a legacy grower and had a past conviction from that. Now, obviously, the legal landscape surrounding cannabis is much different. Mr. Chiaravalle said that when the state legalized adult-use cannabis just over three years ago, he started building a business plan right away.
“For the last three years I’ve been putting my heart and soul and savings into just focusing on creating this business of indoor cultivation,” he said.
He said he expects to generate 20 to 25 full time jobs in administration and growing, and he’s already looking to expand after three years, creating more jobs.
“It will be a fun, healthy environment to work in,” he said. “We’re doing it right.”
So what will go on at the facility?
“We are not a dispensary,” Mr. Chiaravalle notes. “We are an indoor cultivation and distribution facility. Basically we’re growing for dispensaries and we would deliver to dispensaries”. He acknowledges, “There are no dispensaries around right now in this area.” But he says there are already 135 dispensaries in the state.
“We handle all of New York. It’s the whole state we deliver to and grow for.”
“We’re going to be creating organic nutrients, organic soil,” he said. “What’s out there today is a lot of not-organic product. So our niche is going to be organic flower.”
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