Company to open $24M hemp-extraction facility in Westfield, hire 40

BDX-Indiana, a sister company to Indianapolis-based Biodynamic Ventures, plans to open a hemp-extraction facility in Westfield and create more than 40 jobs at the facility, city and company officials announced Wednesday morning.

Biodynamic Ventures, which bills itself as the largest hemp grower in Indiana, and BDX-Indiana together expect to create one of the biggest cannabidiol (CBD oil) extraction operations in the nation within the next three years.

In the next three years, the company plans to spend $24.5 million on equipment for the facility. It expects pay an average annual salary of about $70,000 at the site, according to the city of Westfield. Jobs will include equipment operators, administrators and scientists.

BDX-Indiana—through a partnership with Portland, Oregon-based Zelios, a large-scale extractor, producer, processor and bulk distributor of hemp-derived CBD oil—plans to produce full-spectrum dissolute products from hemp grown and processed in Indiana.

The company will open in the Thienenman Construction headquarters building at 17219 Foundation Parkway. Details about how much space BDX-Indiana will occupy were not immediately available.

“With our experienced partners, we plan to meet the growing demand of hemp products while creating jobs for the city of Westfield and state of Indiana,” Ken Thieneman, president of BDX-Indiana and CEO of Thienenman Construction, said in written comments.

The Westfield City Council has already approved a five-year personal property tax abatement for the company. Documents don’t indicate how much the abatement will save the company. The abatement also only requires the company to hire 25 employees, but company officials said they expect employment well beyond that number.

Beginning this month, BDX-Indiana will begin building out a portion of the building. It plans to spend $6.5 million between now and the end of 2020 purchasing ancillary equipment plus four carbon dioxide machines, a winterization unit that will refine the raw CBD oil, a distillation unit that will complete refinement of the oil to a full-spectrum sellable product, and an isolate manufacturing unit that converts the distilled oil into CBD isolate for wholesale products.

By 2021, it plans to spend an additional $15 million on larger carbon dioxide extraction machines, plus additional winterization, distillation and isolate units. Long-termer goals include expansion of the building.

Production is expected to begin in December.

“We have all seen the growth and innovation of the CBD oil industry, and now, Westfield will play a major role in its future,” Westfield Mayor Andy Cook said in written comments. “BDX-Indiana brings a lot of opportunity to our city. We can support the agriculture production and the extraction innovation. I am glad to see that BDX-Indiana chose Westfield.”

Biodynamic Ventures and its subsidiaries operate two greenhouses in Colorado and four in the Indianapolis area, plus a research and operations center in a former Osco drugstore on the south side of Indianapolis, where the company develops mother hemp plants. Biodynamic Ventures opened its first local Denver CBD retail store at 8235 E. 96th St. on May 31.

John Bales, founder and CEO of Biodynamic Ventures, told IBJ in June that the company likes to be involved in every step of the CBD production process from start to finish to ensure quality. He predicted that would set Biodynamic Ventures apart in the fledgling CBD industry.