A cannabis farm formerly owned by Emerald Family Farms was auctioned off by the Pelorus Capital Group in April. | File photo.



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Beware, all you moms and pops in the hills. The big money is coming to town.

In a press release issued this morning, the financial firm Pelorus Capital Group, which offers loans to folks the cannabis industry, announced that it has entered into a Managed Service Agreement with the publicly traded, vertically integrated StateHouse Holdings Inc. — owners of brands such as Smokies, urbn leaf and Kingpin and operators of Harborside dispensaries, among others — to operate cultivation facilities here in Humboldt County.

According to a story published last week on the financial website Benzinga, the facilities include “a 150,000 square foot greenhouse production facility with an additional acre of field production, in addition to nursery licenses that are split between two facilities, including a 1,500 square foot tissue culture laboratory.”

Today’s press release offers slightly different figures, saying StateHouse will complete “an expansive 118,000 square foot greenhouse production facility and plant tissue culture lab” before “commercializing and scaling production” through its own “full range of services including human resources, legal and compliance, post-harvest production and processing, contract manufacturing, distribution and safety management.”

That’s a lot.

We can’t be certain, but it would stand to reason that these are the same facilities that once belonged to Emerald Family Farms, a group of local boys who fell on hard times and defaulted on an $18 million loan from Pelorus, having put virtually all of their assets up as collateral. Those assets were auctioned off at the county courthouse in April.

Here’s the press release from Pelorus:

Pelorus Capital Group (“Pelorus” or “the Company”), the leading provider of commercial real estate loans for the cannabis sector, announced today that it has entered into a Managed Service Agreement (the “Agreement”) with StateHouse Holdings Inc. (“StateHouse”) (CSE: STHZ) (OTCQX: STHZF), a California-focused, vertically integrated cannabis enterprise to construct and manage the operations at the Company’s cannabis cultivation asset located in Humboldt County, (collectively, the “Humboldt Facilities”).

The first phase of construction at the Humboldt Facilities will include the completion of an expansive 118,000 square foot greenhouse production facility and plant tissue culture lab. Under the terms of the Agreement, StateHouse will assist in finalizing construction of the Humboldt Facilities in addition to commercializing and scaling production through the implementation of its full range of services including human resources, legal and compliance, post-harvest production and processing, contract manufacturing, distribution and safety management.

“Commercializing and scaling up these operations is the first step in stabilizing this previously inactive site and driving strong yields for our investors,” said Travis Goad, Pelorus Capital Group. “Statehouse is one of the largest vertically integrated platforms in California and they are uniquely positioned with the cultivation expertise, operational knowledge, and distribution capabilities to help us generate maximum value from this site. We are excited to partner with a seasoned operator and existing Pelorus borrower to turn around a distressed asset, build a new source of sustainable revenue, and future real estate value.”

About Pelorus Capital Group

Pelorus Capital Group (“Pelorus”), the leading provider of commercial real estate loans for the cannabis sector, and its Pelorus Fund, a private mortgage real estate investment trust (“mREIT”), are changing the commercial real estate lending landscape in the cannabis sector. Pelorus Fund offers a range of innovative transactional solutions to address the diverse needs of real estate investors and portfolio managers, and its flexible acquisition and bridge lending programs are the direct result of the firm’s involvement in more than 5,000 transactions of varying size and complexity. Since 1991, Pelorus’ principals quickly understand an opportunity, structure a logical solution, execute a timely close and have participated in more than $5B of real estate investment transactions using both debt and equity solutions. To date, Pelorus has completed 70+ commercial real-estate loan transactions and deployed more than $500+ million to cannabis businesses and real estate owners, comprising nearly 4,200,000 sq. ft. in eight states across the U.S. With the ability to fund approved construction draws for reimbursement with a single agreement covering the financing of the entire project, the Pelorus Fund helps to stabilize cash flow for its clients, so they are able to remain focused on their core business goals and objectives. For more information, visit https://pelorusequitygroup.com/.