Are you interested in cultivating hemp clones in one of the greenhouses of the Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservancy—a.k.a. the Domes? If so, Milwaukee County would like to hear from you.
On Monday, County Supervisor Sylvia Ortiz-Velez announced the opening of a request for proposal (RFP) for qualified businesses looking to get into the hemp cloning game at the Domes. The RFP calls for a “private entity to lease one of the greenhouses” and “cultivate hemp clones for market consumption with almost all the proceeds going to Milwaukee County.” The RFP is live until Monday, June 7.
“Milwaukee County cannot wait any longer on this opportunity to garner much needed revenue for the Domes and Milwaukee County’s parks system,” Ortiz-Velez said in a press release on Monday.
Ortiz-Velez first proposed the idea of using the Domes for hemp production in 2018. A report from the Department of Parks, Recreation and Culture concluded that it wasn’t worth pursuing. A second report, however, this one from R. B. Mack Consulting, Inc. and others, found that a hemp-growing operation could generate $1.7 million in gross annual sales, and that the Domes’ greenhouses were “well-suited” for cultivating hemp clones.
The County Board passed Ortiz-Velez’s resolution to issue an RFP in 2019. “The RFP was set to be released in 2020,” Ortiz-Velez’s press release explains, “but was put on hold due to an administrative order from the County Executive halting all RFPs. Supervisor Ortiz-Velez authored a budget amendment (1A025) overriding the order and instructing the Parks Department to release the RFP and report its progress to the County Board’s Parks Committee.”
Ortiz-Velez’s press release also notes that “no funding from this operation will be derived from County funds.”
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