COOKIES LLC, a leading provider of top-of-the-line cannabis products, announced today they are embarking on a project in DeLand to launch their Florida headquarters – a project that will represent a $100 million capital investment and eventually bring 400 jobs to our community.
“On behalf of the City, I want to welcome COOKIES to our community,” said Mayor Robert F. Apgar. “COOKIES’ total investment will represent one of the largest in the commercial sector in our City’s history and will help create hundreds of high-paying jobs for our area over time. COOKIES is an outstanding organization, and I am looking forward to watching them become an integral part of DeLand.”
The company, which acquired one of Florida’s 22 medical marijuana treatment center licenses last year, will grow, cultivate and distribute its product from the DeLand location. Their facility will be located in the Northwest Industrial Business Park at the facility once owned by Brunswick Corporation.
At 400,000 square feet of operating space, it was one of the largest vacant locations available for a corporation to locate.
COOKIES, founded in 2012, has an established presence in medical and recreational cannabis markets across the U.S. and internationally, with 43 retail locations located globally.
“COOKIES will be redeveloping one of our largest unutilized properties in the city’s Northwest Industrial Business Park,” said Nick Conte, Economic Development Manager for the City of DeLand. “The company has chosen the DeLand location as its operational hub for the state of Florida and beyond, and we couldn’t be happier to have them as part of our community. Additionally, the company will be utilizing 20 acres of undeveloped industrial property as part of its new construction plans, which includes the hiring of over 200+ employees as part of their first phase.”
Recruiting COOKIES to DeLand was part of a broad community effort led by Mr. Conte and the City’s Community Development staff. Strategic partners include Mr. Tim Davis, SVN Alliance; Mr. OJ Perryman, Perryman Farms; Ms. Heather Shubirg, Team Volusia Economic Development Corporation; Ms. Elizabeth Godwin, Duke Energy; Mr. Michael Sznapstajler and Mr. Robert Doan with Cobb Cole Attorneys-At-Law, Mr. Eric Anderson, Enterprise Florida and The State of Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity.
“The collaborative effort by all of our partners helped this project to fruition,” Mayor Apgar said. “Our area is primed for commercial growth. The addition of COOKIES to our community is proof of that and will likely be the catalyst for other companies locating to our city.”
COMPANY BACKGROUND
COOKIES began with two visionary founders: grow expert Jai, and music entrepreneur Berner, whose Girl Scout COOKIES (GSC) remains one of the most sought-after medical cannabis strains in the world. From the earliest days in a San Francisco garage to global growth, their goal has remained the same: authenticity and innovative genetics.
As part of its Florida expansion plan, COOKIES and its family of brands is building a vertically integrated medical marijuana treatment center that will provide patients throughout the state of Florida a wide variety of high-quality products. Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers, Florida’s official designation for vertically integrated cultivation, processing and dispensing of medical cannabis, are the only authorized outlets for medical cannabis in the state. COOKIES is the only minority-owned and controlled brand to own a Medical Marijuana Treatment Clinic (MMTC) license.
Florida is a medical-use-only market that requires patients to obtain a recommendation for medical cannabis use from a qualified physician and apply for a state issued ID card. Qualifying conditions to obtain a medical use card include cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, epilepsy, PTSD, ALS, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and other comparable debilitating medical conditions like severe/chronic pain and anxiety. Medical cannabis was legalized in the state in 2014, and the program was significantly expanded by the passage of Amendment 2 in November of 2016.
Since launching in 2012 in California, the COOKIES family of brands has established a presence in medical and recreational markets across the U.S. and internationally, including 43 retail locations in the U.S. and Israel.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Jobs: (Phase 1) 150-200
Jobs @ full completion: 400
Capital Investment: $100 million
– Community Information Manager Chris Graham
Wonderful! This is a win-win for patients that can get the natural help they deserve to live a more quality life, and to bring more needed economic growth to the community!
Any idea when they will begin the hiring process?
Interested in this also! I am a OIF/OEF Veteran been looking for opportunity like this for awhile!
I would like to Apply to work here
Looking for work
As someone in the cannabis industry already at Curaleaf, I live close to deland and would love an opportunity for work at a Cookies facility
This is awesome, now people that need help can get it. This has been a need for a long while in Volusia County.
Where can I go to get Applications?? And when is the Building going to be done!!
This sounds Awesome I would love too apply please
Great so now we have a gateway drug being manufactured here in a family town and 400 stoners driving on our streets to and from their factory job
How is this a win for the community? Who wins here with higher car insurance, homeowners insurance and hospital costs. I am a school teacher and we don’t need this trash. These jobs won’t pay diddly squat and shame on the city for pandering to these drug dealers. Maybe the Mayor should visit our schools and see the burnt kids in our elementary schools as young as 8 and the harm this drug brings. What the hell happened to this city? I thought this was a family centered community; Isn’t Volusia getting enough of our property taxes, their mill rate of 19% is the highest in Florida. Who is getting all of this money from taxpayers? I don’t want this here and none of the staff I worked with does either. We see the harm this drug brings to our families and community, I see DCF sending a lot more child protective investigators here soon to combat the fallout from this.
Get educated before spouting your hate speech. It’s been proven to not be a gateway drug a thousand times over, I’ve been smoking for a long time and have not had the urge to do crack or heroin. If you do those drugs then you got more problems than cannabis so just get over it already and free the plant.