PButter said:

wow, sure sounds like you got this all planned out.

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You know....I sure am trying:-) The WA Liquor Control Board is trying to make sure everyone has most of the details worked out, 20 pages of information had to be submitted to them, but I am know there will be many issues arising that I have not thought of yet. Every time I bring someone new into the space they think of something that had not yet occurred to me so more things are bound to pop up. The deal is to be able to think on your feet and any problem is just a solution waiting to be found.

http://www.cbsarmoredtrucks.com/category/used-armored-trucks/

check these out :D

You know I have been looking at just this sort of thing:-) Crazy that I even have to think of such stuff but I think it will be more like a econo line van or something....a little less conspicuous and not nearly so assuming:-)

inthegorge said:

You know I have been looking at just this sort of thing:) Crazy that I even have to think of such stuff but I think it will be more like a econo line van or something....a little less conspicuous and not nearly so assuming:)

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I think that same company has vans. Good luck with your adventure BTW

@inthegorge best wishes and good luck with everything. I see a lot of people in this thread testing you and so far you have posted all the answers. It seems you have some good people on your side and not to mention a brain to go with it!

will you ever be posting some pics or updates on how things turn out? or was this just a pick the forums brains type thing?

Thanks for the good wishes and luck:-) I don't have anything near to all the answers but I am one of those people that are unhappy "not knowing" so I try very hard to find the answers to any questions I have.

I am happy to update the thread as I progress but even though I swear to myself that I will take photos at every different phase I still forget to take the pictures:-/

Here are some "before" photos of the place when I first secured it. Very basic stuff and not very exciting unless you consider that every space in the place will soon be filled with lovely little ladies:-)

Yep! Should be able to grow some good dope in that space.. Looks like enough electric hookups to play Tesla in the corners too.

damn, what i wouldn't give to have that much space. :woot:

It is pretty exciting:-) There is a room upstairs too that is 34'x12' and that will be for drying, grooming and packaging. There are 3 other small room as well and every single inch of the place will need to be useful to us. In order to have the most use of our square footage we will be trying some vertical grows for our second indoor harvest and that is something I am looking forward to for sure. I am most excited about the outdoor space.....100'x100' of hot dry growing area just makes me so crazy ass happy I could scream! To be able to maximize the suns potential in our climate is literally any growers dream come true and I cannot wait for April to get here so I can have healthy hearty juveniles all laid out! We are located on the eastern side of the Cascades so we have hot dry summers with the end of freezing weather for sure by mid April and no chance of a freeze before mid to late October! We are going to have a kick ass patio area so I can sit out there and watch them grow:-)))

As to the power the building was advertised as 400AMP but in fact only had 250AMP actually running to the building. The landlord is upgrading to 600AMP to give us hopefully all the power we will need. I have electricians in there now upgrading the wiring so we have outlets exactly where we need them as well.

Because the building is not in an area with many other buildings we can't get very high speed internet through hard line with the phone company (1.5mp is the fastest they can give us!!!) so will have to go with a local small company with towers fairly close and have 2 internet accounts to be able to upload all the video associated with 18 security cameras...not that big of an issue really just another $100 a month which is nothing in the scheme of this whole project but I was afraid for a while we could not even get fast enough to deal with the camera issues so that was good news for me today:-)

Just a couple of photos of the electrical progress. Using all twist lock plugs with 3 phase 208V power supply. Electrical is almost done! The county signed off on our license so now we are just awaiting final approval from the WA Liquor Control Board and then we need to be ready for a final inspection. So much work still to be done in the next 3 weeks!

Lookin' awesome in there. I can't wait to come and visit your place!

@inthegorge
Pull'n up a chair! Your continued updates will be greatly appreciated by the forum. Thanks for sharing your dream!

For anyone that cares...which is obviously not many here.....I have hit a speed bump. We have been trying to get the county moratoriums lifted here on I502 businesses and have been successful for the most part but they still had a moratorium on retail shops and on outdoor growing in industrial areas which of course is the land use for the property I leased. We have been working with the commission and were finally to our last meeting, the commissioners were going to vote to just totally lift the last moratoriums this last Tuesday. Quite frankly I take most of the credit for educating the commissioners on what we were doing as they were absolutely clueless. Thought weed goes into the ground and stays there season after season like a tree. Anyway....just before the meeting on Tuesday one of the commissioners took my daughter and myself aside and asked us if he could speak with us privately.....that he had some information and didn't want to blind side us in the public meeting. He took us into his office and told us the commissioners had received an email from the port authority as our property was originally part of the port land. The email said the land was originally donated by the Corp of Engineers to the port, then sold to a company and finally sold to the current land owner that we are leasing from .The port believes that there were restrictions and covenants in the original donation of the land that are still valid today and one of them was that if the land is used in a manner not allowed the land reverts back to the Corp of Engineers. The port says agriculture (not just pot, any agriculture) is not to be allowed on the industrial zoned land. Basically what the Port was requesting was that the county not allow us to grow there. The county said "not our issue and we don't care." The county already signed off with the LCB that it is fine with them if we grow there. The county continued and lifted the moratorium totally so now there are no restrictions by them on where to grow as long as you are licensed with the state and do things within their rules.

I immediately contacted the land owner and said what the heck....don't you know no one is supposed to use your property for agricultural use? He said he didn't know but I find that hard to believe. He also told us repeatedly before that the Port had no authority on his property but now he says they do.If there was any indication that the Port had authority there I would have gone to them first thing and told them my plans as I did with the county, the police, the local community, etc., because I want to do this right with nothing coming up behind me to bite me in the ass. I think the landlord now expects us to just move out and go away. We have spent over $28,o00 just on improvements to his property so that ain't going to happen! I have spoken with 2 attorneys now just to be sure and they both say we are in good shape and if he breaks the terms of our lease he will have to reimburse us. That won't help me much if I have to find another spot though:-(( We are still hanging in there. I have tried to be as proactive as I possibly could. We are just moving forward and if the Port wants to do anything about it they would have to litigate with the land owner and it would be his problem not ours. Who knows how this will all turn out? I am just hoping to get a crop or two done before any shit hits the fan with him and the port authority because then I would have the cash to move which is allowable with the WA legal license. The worst case scenario is if he breaks our lease because even though he would be legally libel for all money we have put into his building, that still would not give me a crop and would put me behind in this process when we have worked very hard to get here.

I am sure this will be great news for you haters:-) Not so much for me:-/ We will still be moving forward....will still find another place if that is what has to happen.....but dang....I hope it goes down ok for us and we get to stay in this location for the term of our lease. I did not have to post this....I just felt like it is part of my process and I said I would share the tale so that is why I put it here for all you naysayers to gloat on. We are not down...we will still be doing this..... but man oh man I could have done without this particular step.

There are sooo many haters out there. I don't mean on the forum, particularly. Anyone trying to move forward and make something for themselves will run into unnecessary opposition by those who hate, or even just have nothing better to do. Sorry to hear you're having an issue. You do seem like you have the kahunas to carry on, and I hope things work out for you in the end. Anyone who gloats at another's misfortune is not welcome at my trimming table. :-) Hang in there!

Hopefully you can move forward without any problems. That is one sweet space you have!

sorry to hear inthegorge, all i can say is that people will always hate. if they're hating its probably a good sign you're doing something good. I know my initial post wasn't very welcoming but those who know me, know that i'm just a straight to the point kind of guy. I found out the hard way a long time ago that you can't expect open arms in this business. everything is 10x more difficult and trying to be legal is really a gamble with no guarantee of anything. thanks for sharing and good luck to you..

BudMuncher said:

Hopefully you can move forward without any problems. That is one sweet space you have!

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I'm gonna go see that sweet space tomorrow! If she let's me, I'll snap up some pictures for everyone...

That's a HELL of a problem, itg. Have you been able to see the documentation that supports the Port Authority's claim? And should they prevail, will you be able to recoup *any* of your costs, including attorney's fees? Seems to me that, legally, you have a right to that should the PA pull 'rank' on the county and landowner.

Thanks for the good wishes folks! Yes it is a HELL of a problem Seamaiden:-/ Especially since I was VERY proactive on contacting any local officials about our plans and would have contacted the Port first thing if I had any idea at all that they had any authority whatsoever on our property but the land owner told me repeatedly that they did not! Personally I do not understand how a business man with multiple commercial properties would not know about any such agreements when he purchased the property and I think in fact he did know and just hoped nothing would come of it.

It remains to be seen what will happen. So far no one from the Port has contacted me or the land owner. They sent the email to the county in an attempt to get them to not allow our business to start there but the county said "not our issue" and they already signed off on our paperwork. If the landlord wants to pull out of the lease agreement we have grounds to sue but that won't help me in the short term of course. It is just the "opinion" of the Port so far but I am looking up the information they quoted in the county deed records tomorrow to see exactly what is written. It will depend on what my landlord decides most likely and I don't like the guy one bit so we will see:-/ I am nervous as heck though and hope to be licensed by the state within the next 3 weeks. It will not affect the state licensing me, but if I can't do business there I would have to find another location which would be very difficult with so much of our start up cash tied up in the building we already secured. The land owner would absolutely be liable to us for the money we have invested in his building but when would we see it with the way the court system works?

Anyway....still have our fingers crossed that we get to stay here for the year term of our lease and if the Port were to litigate with the land owner it would probably take at least that long so we might be good. Time will tell unfortunately.

Tank333 said:

I'm gonna go see that sweet space tomorrow! If she let's me, I'll snap up some pictures for everyone...

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Get a hold of me Tank! I need to leave to go to work at the building for the day so need to know what you want and when you will be in these parts:-)