Historic Brandon building being converted to indoor farm
A heritage building in Brandon is getting a second life thanks to new indoor farming technology.
The McKenzie Seeds building in Brandon was built in 1910 and has been a provincially-designated historical site since the nineties.
Now, a company called Brandon Fresh Farms is using new technology to convert the 113-year-old building into an indoor vertical farm.
"It's a very exciting opportunity to innovate and renovate a historic building in downtown Brandon," said Gerald Cathcart, Director of Economic Development for the City of Brandon. "It's also an excellent opportunity to bring in sustainable food production to our city."
Brandon Fresh Farms president Adam Morand said the farm will also bring new jobs to Brandon.
"Once we're fully operational with the facility at McKenzie Seeds building, we'll be doing about 20 to 30 full time jobs, and probably 50 to 70 part time jobs to fill in the shifts," said Morand.
Morand is excited to begin work on converting the historic complex. "It is a phenomenal building, or set of buildings, with excellent bones as we would put it," he said.
The 120,000 square foot space will grow crops of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and much more. It's expected to produce more than 180 metric tonnes of food per month.
A vertical farm grows crops in stacked layers using controlled indoor environments, often making good use of empty spaces such as used shipping containers or vacant office buildings.
The POE devices run all the environmental sensors, lighting, water pumps, everything having to do with the grow operation. (Source: Brandon Fresh Farms)
The project will cost around $30 million, but Cathcart said it's expected to inject more than $48 million into Brandon's economy.
"The second piece there is the produce that they're producing is most likely to be sold locally," said Cathcart. "So rather than seeing consumers' grocery dollars spent on imported produce, we're going to have that money circulating back right within Brandon."
Cathcart added that food grown at the farm can be on grocery store shelves within 24 hours of being harvested.
Vertical farming is not a new concept, Morand says people have been doing it for years. But he said Brandon Fresh Farms will be using new technology developed by Agriplay Ventures, another company founded by Morand.
"It's a network of devices, low power computing devices, that all run on power over Ethernet or POE technology," he said.
The POE devices run all the environmental sensors, lighting, water pumps, everything having to do with the grow operation.
"The technology was developed to farm anything, anywhere, anytime, local, making full advantage of underutilized real estate," said Morand.
Work is slated to begin in January, with the facility expected to be fully operational by 2025.
- with files from CTV's Kayla Rosen
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6976926.1721883767!/httpImage/image.png_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.png)
DEVELOPING Alberta's request for federal assistance approved after fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park: Trudeau
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on social media that Ottawa has approved Alberta's request for federal assistance after a fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park and its townsite late Wednesday.
Jasper mayor says alert system to be reviewed after message 'glitch'
More than 25,000 people have been displaced from Jasper National Park since wildfires started to threaten the picturesque corner of Alberta Rockies on Monday, but the mayor of its namesake municipality says not everyone received an evacuation alert when it was sent out.
Canada's premiers forced to confront escalating climate change-related disasters
Many of Canada's provincial and territorial leaders remained consumed by climate change-related natural disasters that have only escalated since they met for meetings in Halifax last week.
Biden explains why he ended re-election bid in Oval Office address
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered a solemn call to voters to defend the country's democracy as he laid out in an Oval Office address his decision to drop his bid for reelection and throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.
Unclaimed bodies are piling up in Newfoundland. A funeral director blames the government
A funeral director in St. John's says the bodies piling up in freezers at Newfoundland and Labrador's largest hospital likely belong to people whose loved ones couldn't get enough government help to pay for a funeral.
Norad intercepts Russian and Chinese bombers operating together near Alaska in apparent first
The North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) intercepted two Russian and two Chinese bombers flying near Alaska Wednesday in what appears to be the first time the two countries have been intercepted while operating together.
Barrie-Innisfil MPP 'blacked-out' and crashed car into window of child care centre
Staff at a Barrie child care centre say they are frustrated by what they call a local MPP's inadequate response after a car crashed through a window in one of the toddler rooms.
Monday breaks the record for the hottest day ever on Earth
Driven by oceans that won't cool down, an unseasonably warm Antarctica and worsening climate change, Earth's record hot streak dialed up this week, making Monday the hottest day humans have measured.
Prince Harry says lawsuits against U.K. press 'central piece' in family breakdown
Prince Harry, speaking in clips published on Wednesday from a new documentary, said his legal battles with Britain's tabloid press have contributed to the breakdown of his relationship with the royal family.