The Town of Wawarsing is getting another company that specializes in hydroponics and indoor growing. The news broke this week that GrowGeneration of Denver, Colorado, has bought Mobile Media, Inc., MMI, the Pine Bush-based firm that is an innovator in high-density mobile shelving systems.

MMI has a warehouse on Route 209 in Wawarsing, next to Aero Star truck and auto repair, and coincidentally a reasonable home run distance from the future site of Cresco Labs’ sizable indoor grow operation on the old Schrade/Channel Master property.

“We began negotiations on this in February,” Michael Salaman, president of GrowGeneration told the Shawangunk Journal. “MMI was a pretty much perfect fit for what we want to do in the New York market. And then we discovered that Cresco Labs were looking hard at the large property just down the street from the MMI warehouse.”

And what else? “It so happens that Cresco are customers of ours in other markets,” Salaman added. “Both companies are working in a number of states.”

MMI was the brainchild of Lance Pennington, who with his wife, Nancy, built the Pine Bush firm into a leader in the field of metal shelving systems referred to as “benching.” The Penningtons grew their company up from bootstraps over roughly 30 years and the reputed $9.4 million buyout from GrowGeneration is an All American kind of reward for diligence and hard work. MMI is also known for the loyalty of its staff, many of whom have been with the firm for 15 years.

Salaman noted that and said, “We will be keeping as many of the workers as we possibly can. Lance will also be consulting with us for a while as we take over.”

MMI has two warehouses with 70,000 square feet of space, and a manufacturing facility in New York. The revenue for the firm in 2021 was reported at $14 million.

Salaman said, “The use of MMI’s vertical benching systems with our indoor vertical cultivation systems is a natural fit. I can’t emphasize enough how innovative Lance has been. He’s developed an overhead access system to allow workers to reach the third tier of plants growing indoors. This has been a problem for growers for years.”

While GrowGeneration is a leader in cannabis growth — working for customers from the individual home grower to giants like Cresco Labs on the commercial, and offering everything from grow lights to “Humboldt Nutrients” in sizes from one quart to 55 gallons (about $4,000), Salaman noted, “Indoor growing, hydroponics, is a wave of the future for us, and we are interested in a spectrum of possible products. That could include micro-greens for salads and really flavorful tomatoes. The logic of growing all these things in California and then trucking it all thousands of miles to markets on the East Coast is not without its problems.”

Salaman also observed that growing salad greens this way is completely organic and avoids pesticides completely, something that health-conscious consumers are more and more concerned about.

Currently in New York, the Cannabis Control Board is working out the rules for everything related to cannabis. It’s a massive job, but everything is expected to begin moving on these areas in the next year or so.

“We think we will double the size of the operation there in 2022,” confirmed Mike Salaman. “This is a new market and considerable growth can be expected.”

Home growers in particular will be seeking all the necessary products and nutrients that GrowGeneration has developed in the eight years the company has been in business. To that end Salaman noted, “We will be opening up centers in other parts of New York State.”

However, for now, Wawarsing is becoming a central node in the soon-to-be-burgeoning New York State cannabis business.