More than 100 people packed the lobby of the 250,000-square-foot cultivation center in Matteson Wednesday to celebrate the opening of Illinois’ largest cannabis cultivation and production facility.

The ceremony marked the completion of the first phase of 4Front Ventures’ multiphase expansion project in Illinois. Based in Phoenix, Arizona, the company has plans for continued growth and development in the region.

“We faced our share of challenges, whether it was getting the facility designed to our specific specifications, whether that was navigating the ever-changing cannabis laws in the state,” 4Front Ventures CEO Andrew Thut said. “But we stayed the course and it’s been worth every single second.”

The facility features 47,000 square feet of flowering canopy and 70,000 square feet of manufacturing space, supporting the production of more than 10 in-house brands and thousands of products, the company said in a news release.

Thut said while the company could have held the ribbon cutting sooner, they opted to wait until the facility was fully operational and the first harvests were underway. The first plants were put into the ground in early July, he said.

Growing marijuana in a climate-controlled indoor environment is a year-round operation, with plants maturing continuously as new ones are planted behind those being harvested.

Through its dispensaries, 4Front offers a variety of brands, including Crystal Clear, Funky Monkey, and Pebbles, according to its website.

The harvests produced at the Matteson facility will supply 4Front dispensaries, which operate under the Mission Dispensaries name and serve both medical and recreational cannabis to customers on Chicago’s Southeast Side and in Calumet City.

The center will produce a range of products including flower, concentrates, vaporizers, edibles, topicals and other cannabis-infused items, will be available at Mission Dispensaries across Illinois and through wholesale partners, officials said.

The company broke ground in August 2021, with the final facility expected to cover 558,000 square feet and employ 500 people.

The first phase, originally slated for completion in 2022, was expected to create 240 livable-wage jobs in the Matteson area, according to a news release. In the second phase, 4Front plans to expand the facility by an 300,000 square feet and add 260 more jobs.

Thut announced Tuesday the facility created more than 85 jobs, with more positions expected in coming months as they continue to scale operations and offer career development opportunities.

“We look forward to growing alongside this community for many years to come, but today is just the beginning,” Thut said. “As we look ahead, this facility will play a key role in our expansion plans. Illinois is a key market for our company, and we’re committed to deepening our roots here.”

Matteson Mayor Sheila Chalmers-Currin said the growing and cultivating facility is another example the village diversifying its tax base.

“The addition of 4Front Ventures to our community reflects our collective commitment to ensuring that we remain a regional leader in attracting diverse forms of economic development within our border,” she told attendees. “I want to thank 4Front for choosing Matheson as its new home.”

The village backed a Class 8 property tax incentive through Cook County for the development, which lowers the tax classification rate to the same level as a residential property.

While commercial properties are generally assessed at 25% of their fair market value, the Class 8 designation, while temporary, reduces that rate to just 10%.

State Rep. Debbie Myers-Martin hailed the facility as a successful effort to drive economic development to the south suburbs, noting her role in the effort to legalize recreational marijuana sales in Illinois.

“We realized that that is something that would do wonders for the state in terms of revenue generation, job creation and all of the things that we have seen over these past five years,” she said.

In July, Illinois reached $1 billion in cannabis retail sales, two weeks earlier than in 2023, according to the governor’s office. Since the legalization of recreational cannabis in 2020, tax revenue from sales has funded $244 million in R3 grants, supporting economic development, violence prevention and youth programs in underserved communities across the state, the office said.

The project was financed by Innovative Industrial Properties, and 4Front leased the building from IIP. At the groundbreaking, 4Front’s former director of operations, J.T. Archer, said the cost to build the 250,000-square-foot facility was $45 million, excluding the equipment required for growing and cultivation.

4Front also operates dispensaries in Massachusetts and Michigan, along with a growing and cultivation center in Massachusetts.

smoilanen@chicagotribune.com