The old Bulldog Cinema has been sold and the Big Rapids City Commission has approved a special land use permit to make the half of the building a marijuana growing and processing facility.

During the commission meeting, Neighborhood Services Director Paula Priebe told commissioners 

the Planning commission previously approved Michigan Pipe Dreams a special land use permit for 125 Howard Street and with approval of the Maple Street location, this would connect the buildings. 

Michigan Pipe Dreams CFO, Chrisitan Frank said he has talked to business owners around the area and fellow tennet Spectrum on how to improve the building inside and the astetics outide of it as well.

"We’ve actually talked to a few of our neighbors which would be like M & M Collision and he was referencing The Sawmill and just talked about the beautification of the area.” Frank said

“So we have decided to go above and beyond when talking to our architect for planning extra trees and those things.  The neighbors didn’t want us to wrap every single thing with that chain link that's already there. We are working with a lot of ideas from our neighbors to make sure that we're going above and beyond what's required.” Frank added.

The commision voted 4-1 in favor of the permit with Mayor Fred Guether opposing citing his concerns of the processing of the cannabis and how it could affect local enviroment. Frank told the Mayor they use all organic ingredients for processing and growing and no chemicals what so ever.