Before George Kennett joined Cresco Labs eight years ago, he was in a job he didn't like, and his abuse of alcohol and other drugs led to what could have been a fatal spiral.
The job at Cresco "saved my life and changed my life for the better," Kennett, 32, told Illinois Times. "It gave me purpose."
In a bit of irony, Illinois' legalization of marijuana for medical patients in 2013 and adult-use cannabis in 2020 created a path in Lincoln that helped Kennett stabilize his life.
The Lincoln native worked his way into mid-level management at Cresco. He has been able to buy a house in his hometown and provide for his wife and their three children, ages 4, 10 and 15, and he sees opportunities for further advancement within the company.
Chicago-based Cresco Labs' site in Logan County, just outside Lincoln, is the largest legal marijuana cultivation center in Illinois, employing about 215 people – 70% of them from Logan County – with average wages totaling $35,000 to $55,000 per year.
Legal cannabis is a more than $1.5 billion-a-year business in Illinois, with almost $139 million in retail adult-use cannabis sales reported in October alone. Cresco says 25% of all cannabis products sold in Illinois originate from plants grown at the Logan County site.
Two related businesses – a cannabis dispensary and a cannabis infusion site that will manufacture gummies for sale at dispensaries statewide – will open in Lincoln in coming weeks. And a third business, a craft-grow cultivation site operated by an entrepreneur who turned to Lincoln after Springfield's zoning restrictions proved too onerous, hopes to open by summer 2024.
Lincoln welcomes cannabis industry
The cannabis industry has been a bright spot amid years of economic challenges for Lincoln, which has seen numerous layoffs and closures – most recently the October announcement that 79-year-old Lincoln Christian University will cease academic operations in May 2024.
The private Christian college, which at one point employed about 150 people, downsized and revamped its academic offerings in 2022 but wasn't able to overcome what its president called "a steep decline in enrollment as well as a partial decline in giving."
"Higher ed as a market is seeing contraction," LCU President Silas McCormick said.
Especially hard-hit have been small, private colleges in the United States that began to open in the 18th and 19th centuries to keep students "away from the vices and distractions of the bigger cities," he said.
Other economic hits to the Logan County seat included the 2022 closure of Lincoln College, a 157-year-old, predominantly Black institution that employed about 150. College officials cited enrollment disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic and a December 2021 ransomware attack.
Other bad news included the 2019 closure of the Ardagh Group's glass container production plant, which employed 150; and the 2002 closure of Lincoln Developmental Center and loss of almost 500 jobs.
Despite its conservative bent, the city of about 13,300 people in a rural county of almost 28,000 is warming up to cannabis as a tool in its economic arsenal.
The secret to that acceptance may not be surprising, even with an all-Republican Logan County Board, only one Democrat on the eight-member Lincoln City Council and a Republican mayor, because of a key factor: jobs.
"Those jobs, regardless of where they fit in that sector of our economy, those are good-paying jobs, they have benefits, they're trainable – so people who have never had experience in that industry can be trained to do those jobs – and they have opportunity for advancement," said Andrea Runge, chief executive officer of Lincoln Economic Advancement & Development, the community's primary economic development group.
"It is an opportunity for people who have been displaced by different industries, which have unfortunately left, to stay and still find a way to not only live, but thrive here in Lincoln," she said.
Lincoln Mayor Tracy Welch, an information-technology specialist who works out of his home for a major insurance company, said he feels comfortable welcoming the cannabis industry.
"First and foremost, it's already legal," Welch said. "We have constituents who would like these products. They already go out of town to get them. ... The other part is the financial impact to the city. They're creating jobs, very good-paying jobs that people would travel elsewhere for. Those jobs come with benefits and all the things that a good employer provides.
"This helps us fill a gap from a financial and employment perspective."
Economic indicators trend down
Lincoln, first settled in the 1830s and founded in 1853, was the first city named after Abraham Lincoln, and its founding took place while Lincoln was a lawyer and before he became president.
Lincoln assisted in the official platting of the city, practiced law there from 1847 to 1859 and worked as a lawyer for the newly-laid railroad that led to the city's founding. The city also is a stop on Historic Route 66.
Lincoln, like many rural communities, has seen population decline since 1970, when 17,582 people lived there. By 2000, the city's population was 15,369, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. The bureau recorded about 14,500 people, a 5.6% reduction, in 2010, and the 2020 Census showed a further 8.4% drop.
Other economic indicators for Lincoln, which is 40 miles northeast of Springfield, show trends also seen throughout rural Illinois. Median household income in Lincoln was 26% below the statewide median in 2000. In 2020, median income in the city was $48,510 per year, or 29% less than the statewide median of $68,428.
The poverty rate in Lincoln was 11% in 2000, the same as the statewide rate, but Lincoln's poverty rates have exceeded statewide levels since then. The city's overall poverty rate was 13.2% in 2010 and 14% in 2020, while poverty rates among children were 14% in 2000, 21% in 2010 and 19% in 2020, according to Census data.
Lincoln Developmental Center, which first opened in 1877, at one time in the late 1950s had 5,700 residents, according to historical accounts. In 2000, shortly before its closure, there were 383 residents and almost 700 employees.
LCD was closed by the state amid years of documented cases of abuse and neglect of children and adults with mental illness and developmental disabilities. The statewide and nationwide move away from institutional care and less stigma surrounding people with intellectual disabilities may have led to better lives for clients, but the economic impact of LDC's closure lingers.
A bright spot for the site, still dotted with abandoned buildings, is the ongoing construction of a $54.7 million Illinois Youth Center for young people in the custody of the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice.
The new central Illinois facility, funded by the Rebuild Illinois capital program, is expected to be complete by late fall 2024. It is expected to open in early 2025 and eventually employ 100 people.
The area still has major employers, which include Eaton Corp. with close to 800 workers; the city's two state prisons, Logan and Lincoln correctional centers, with a combined total of 730 employees; Lincoln Memorial Hospital with 325 employees; Lincoln School District 27 with 204 workers; Sysco with about 200 workers; and Lincoln Community High School with 116 employees.
"Lincoln is very entrepreneurial"
Runge said her focus isn't on landing an Amazon distribution center, a goal many smaller communities were pushing to achieve before the pandemic hit, though she said she would be glad to take Amazon's calls if it's interested.
"It's not about landing the big fish," she said. "Lincoln is very entrepreneurial."
Runge said much of her time is spent assisting small businesses in starting up, maintaining momentum and growing, especially as pandemic restrictions have eased. She encourages customers to help their hometown thrive.
"I always remind everyone that your shopping habits are investments ... when you're looking at a smaller community to build an economy that is self-sustaining and not reliant on other industries that may choose to leave at any time," she said.
Like the Guest House coffee shop and other businesses on the Logan County Courthouse square – such as The Bee, Small Town Creations and Deep Roots Bakery – Runge said Cresco has worked to cement its niche in Lincoln. She believes most residents will accept the city's future cannabis-related businesses, as well.
"People know that there are people who need jobs, and jobs, no matter what they do, are something that lifts us all," Runge said. "It's hard to get back on your feet without a paycheck."
Cresco first opened the Lincoln cultivation center in 2016, with eight workers and 8,000 square feet of indoor marijuana growing space. The current workforce tends to 168,000 square feet of indoor growing space, or "canopy" – the term used in the cannabis industry.
Most of the cannabis produced there is processed, packaged and, in some cases, refined into edible products, at Cresco's Joliet facility.
Cresco spokesperson Jason Erkes said the publicly traded company, which operates 10 dispensaries in Illinois and has facilities in seven other states, doesn't disclose production or sales statistics for individual sites.
But the Lincoln plant pays about $700,000 in property taxes annually. In addition, as part of an agreement with Logan County government, the company sends the county quarterly payments of between $100,000 and $200,000.
The agreement bases the annual totals for the county on 0.5% of the site's annual wholesale revenues, said Logan County Board chairperson Emily Davenport. Those payments indicate annual wholesale revenues for the site total at least $100 million per year.
Davenport, a Lincoln resident who works full time as assistant director of human resources for the secretary of the Illinois Senate, said the county, with a total annual budget of about $21 million, has a "fabulous" relationship with Cresco.
The County Board has used the Cresco payments mainly to make improvements at two county-owned parks in Lincoln, including installation of a pickleball court, playground equipment upgrades, an outdoor ice rink, additional Christmas lights and a decorative water fountain.
"It's been just fantastic overall," said Davenport, who doesn't use cannabis. "We've never had money to do this all at once before. ... It does bring jobs and a lot of income for the whole community."
The Cresco plant is less than a mile from Davenport's home in Lincoln. "You can smell it from my house," she said. "I don't care. They run a tight ship over there."
"Lincoln is definitely pro-business"
Tom Meiron, chief executive officer and a partner in Illinois Infusion, which is spending about $2 million to renovate and equip a former Bonanza restaurant, said: "Lincoln has been a fantastic place to do business."
The business, to open in a nondescript building near a McDonald's two miles from downtown Lincoln, won't be open to the public but will produce cannabis-infused gummie candies for dispensaries statewide.
Illinois Infusion will employ five to eight people, Meiron said.
The business could produce as many as 30,000 to 60,000 gummies per day. The products would contain combinations of biological compounds, known as cannabinoids, some of which produce euphoria and some that reduce anxiety and make it easier to sleep.
Meiron, 59, along with craft-grow entrepreneur Jeff Fulgenzi, found Lincoln officials more cooperative than those in Springfield, where Meiron said restrictive zoning made finding an acceptable site all-but impossible.
"Lincoln is definitely pro-business," Meiron said.
A veteran of the restaurant industry, Meiron said he has benefited personally from gummies that help him sleep, and gummies have eased anxiety for his 19-year-old son, who has autism.
Votes by the Lincoln City Council in 2021 and 2022 set up a structure for retail and non-retail cannabis businesses to seek approval. The council's ordinance allows only one dispensary in the city. Votes earlier this year allowed licenses for Meiron's group, Fulgenzi's group and the dispensary, Mystic Greenz, to be approved.
Meiron said Cresco's success in Lincoln, which includes the company providing volunteers for community events, "paved the way" for council support for the new businesses, though that support wasn't unanimous.
Cresco's jobs, taxes paid and the fact that the company's operations didn't lead to "addicts walking the streets" all had an impact, he said.
Mystic Greenz's recreational-use cannabis dispensary, in a former Pizza Hut at 1120 Woodlawn Road, cost about $2 million to prepare for opening, according to founder and CEO Krishna Balakrishnan.
About 250 people applied for jobs, and 16 have been hired so far, with the potential for more hirings depending on demand, he said. Balakrishnan's group also operates a dispensary near Decatur. The Lincoln store is scheduled to open Nov. 24.
"We are super-excited, and we hope to be a good partner in the community," said Balakrishnan, 44, a Bloomington resident. "We want to be a good neighbor in the community."
An added bonus for Lincoln will be revenue from a 3% local sales tax on products sold by the dispensary that will go to city government. The council hasn't yet discussed uses for that revenue, which Balakrishnan estimated at "a couple hundred-thousand dollars" each year.
A block away from the downtown square is where Fulgenzi, a Sherman resident and CEO of Route 66 LLC, plans to operate a small-scale indoor cultivation center.
Fulgenzi is trying to raise about $2 million to renovate and equip the ground-level, 10,000 square feet of space for a craft grow, he said.
The facility initially will employ seven or eight employees and eventually could grow to between 25 and 30 workers earning between $35,000 and $200,000 per year, he said.
The building previously housed a former Fastenal commercial equipment supplier.
Fulgenzi, 53, said the investment group he heads continues to look for more investors to bring the project to fruition. He also is waiting for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to offer $40 million in loans to cannabis entrepreneurs; the money was included in the state's fiscal 2024 budget.DCEO officials didn't respond to a request for comment.
Fulgenzi is still stinging from his treatment by Springfield city officials when he sought to open a craft grow there.
"It's unfortunate that so many businesses have so much difficulty in Springfield to achieve common goals," he said. "Lincoln did everything you should do to attract businesses."
Despite concerns, cannabis has "tremendous economic impact"
Wanda Lee Rohlfs, a Lincoln Ward 3 alderperson, was among only two or three council members who have voted against proposals to allow the new cannabis businesses.
She is a retired Lincoln Community High School business teacher and guidance counselor and said her votes reflected the views of her constituents and her own concerns that more accessibility to marijuana will stunt the brain development of children and young adults.
Adult-use cannabis is legal only for people 21 and older in Illinois. But the more it's available in society, the more likely underage people are to get access to it, Rohlfs said.
She said that when she was a teacher and counselor, "It was my job to keep kids safe."
The Logan County Board of Health, which oversees the county's department of public health, has not supported marijuana legalization because of concerns that it will lead to addiction and harm young people, department director Don Cavi said.
In fact, promoting good mental health for youth and the need for efforts to prevent substance abuse are two of the county's top health priorities, Cavi said.
Economic hardships have an undeniable impact on long-term public health, but whether the positive economic benefits of cannabis will more than offset the potential harms remains to be seen, he said.
In downtown Lincoln, the proprietors of Spirited Republic, a craft-beer business, have seen employees and officials from Cresco Labs patronize their place as well as Guzzardo's Italian Villa and the ice cream shop Top Hat Creamery.
The three businesses are next to each other and collaborate to serve customers.
Colleen Roate, 53, who owns and operates Spirited Republic with her husband, Bussy Roate, 56, and Troy Hanger, 63, said she is in favor of the new cannabis businesses.
"Anytime you bring jobs to Lincoln, it's going to trickle down," she said. "So we're thrilled with that."
Cresco quality assurance manager James Camacho, 28, grew up in a small town near Champaign and moved to Lincoln when he got a job at Cresco about four years ago. He earned a bachelor's degree in horticulture from Illinois State University and said some of his professors looked down on the cannabis industry, but that sentiment is changing.
He previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry but said: "No company has ever made me feel as fulfilled as Cresco. I would say it's truly a camaraderie here that you won't find in many places, and I feel like there's so many very skilled individuals in many different areas and from all walks of life."
Kennett, who manages the site's first stages in the processing of mature cannabis plants, said his use of marijuana never was the problem that drug use and heavy drinking caused for him before he was hired at Cresco.
Cannabis still holds a stigma, especially for older people, he said. But he said the success he has had at Cresco has changed his grandparents' minds about cannabis.
"They approve of it at this point," Kennett said.
Erkes said many workers in the cannabis industry have a passion inspired by the health and social benefits of the products.
He commended Lincoln-area officials for giving the industry a chance.
"They dipped their toe in the water with us and embraced it, and it's led to a tremendous economic impact, first with us and now with these three other businesses," Erkes said. "For a community that might not be pro-cannabis, but could overlook that and wrap their arms around the potential of what it could mean from a jobs and from an economic standpoint, really says a lot."
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer at Illinois Times. He can be reached at [email protected], 217-679-7810 or twitter.com/DeanOlsenIT.
