Former ColorPoint Greenhouse Has a Buyer?

Chris Beytes

We recently received word that the nearly 2 million sq. ft. Paris, Kentucky, greenhouse complex that once grew flowers for ColorPoint LLC and later (for a short time, anyway) produced hemp for AgTech Scientific, has a high bidder in its receivership sale, although no name has been made public as of yet.

The sale is being conducted by A&G Real Estate Partners and Murray Wise Associates on behalf of Aurora Management Partners, Inc., the Receiver for AgTech Scientific Group, LLC; Color Point, LLC; and other affiliates, as part of a federal receivership case pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Lexington Division. The ultimate sale will be subject to approval by the federal receivership court.

Whoever buys the operation will be getting 1.57 million sq. ft. of gutter-connected greenhouse, 150,000 sq. ft. of poly tunnels and 155,000 sq. ft. of warehouse and office space on 151 acres. Price for the site is said to have to meet or exceed $22.85 million. A CBD production facility and office/warehouse space is being offered separately.

For a quick history, ColorPoint was founded in 2001 by brothers Art and Ken VanWingerden, some years after they sold their Floral Plant Growers operations in Maryland and Delaware, and relocated to New Zealand to try out the greenhouse business there. In 2019, they announced the switch from annuals to CBD via a merger with AgTech Scientific. The hemp business in Kentucky started out with a bang, but quickly fizzled due to numerous factors, leading AgTech’s lender(s) to put the company into receivership to facilitate the sale.

“With the oversupply of hemp in the United States, many CBD producers continue to face challenges in today’s marketplace,” noted Emilio Amendola, co-president of A&G Real Estate Partners. “Nonetheless, other agricultural companies, as well as healthy hemp and CBD producers, now have the opportunity to acquire high-quality growing and production assets such as these at significantly below replacement value.” GT