Pot Paradise Planned as Cannabis Company Buys California Town

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Welcome to Pot City, USA.

In a bid to create the country’s first marijuana-tourism destination, the town of Nipton, Calif., was bought for about $5 million last week by Arizona cannabis company American Green Inc.

The company said it intends to spend another $2.5 million in the next 18 months to build up the infrastructure of the tiny town (official population: six, as of 2016). That includes plans to bottle cannabis-infused water, cultivation of marijuana and production of edibles. The 120-acre town will also feature mineral baths, pot retail shops, artist-in-residence programs and lodging.

Tempe, Ariz.,-based American Grower said the onetime mining town will be powered entirely by renewable energy.

The company said it hopes to make the town a model for how struggling small towns across America can reinvent themselves

Marijuana tourism “has the power to completely revitalize communities in the same way gold did during the 19th century,” said David Gwyther, American Grower chairman and president, in a statement. “We are thrilled to begin work on this first-of-its-kind eco-tourism experience for conscious cannabis consumers.”

The town is located near the Nevada border, about three hours from Los Angeles and an hour from Las Vegas, but just about 10 minutes off the busy Interstate 15 that links the two cities. While still illegal at the federal level, recreational marijuana is legal in both California and Nevada.

A Cowen and Co. report issued last year found the legal marijuana industry is worth about $6 billion a year in the U.S., and could be worth $50 billion by 2026.

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