The medical cannabis facility that was slated for an old bank on U.S. 27 in Alexandria will instead be located on a new construction site in Wilder.

The Wilder Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved the stage one and two plans for the dispensary at its Nov. 24 meeting. The facility will be located on Country Drive, next to Patient Aids Home Care Equipment & Services.

“At one point, they were looking at some place south of here,” Wilder City Administrator Terry Vance said. “Then they were looking at another site somewhere in Wilder, but it didn’t pan out. This is a new construction site.”

The company opening the dispensary is C3 Industries, based in Michigan. Bob Phillips with C3 Industries said Kentucky is its seventh state of operation, and the business has 30-plus stores open right now. He said the company has been in operation since about 2000.

Phillips said the dispensary will be called “High Profile” and will feature a drive-through for pickups only. The hours of operation are expected to be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.

Operating a medical cannabis business becomes legal in Kentucky on Jan. 1, 2026. Wilder was one of many NKY cities that put medical cannabis on the ballot in November 2024, when voters approved operations in the city.

On Nov. 25, 2024, the governor’s office announced that businesses in Erlanger, Florence, and Alexandria were among the first medical cannabis dispensaries selected in the state’s license lottery. No more than one dispensary can be in each county, except in Kentucky’s two largest counties, Jefferson and Fayette.

In December 2024, it was announced that the proposed site for Alexandria’s medical cannabis dispensary is the old Truist Bank building located at 7612 Alexandria Pike, next door to a US Bank.

LINK nky reached out to Alexandria for comment on the facility’s decision to locate outside the city, but the city had no comment at this time.

State law prohibits medical cannabis businesses from operating within 1,000 feet of a daycare or school.

Wilder Planning and Zoning Commissioner Richard Fowler said there were vacant properties across the street from the approved site for the dispensary. Therefore, businesses such as churches, daycares, or schools could not locate to those vacant sites.

Aside from dispensaries, Wilder also approved cultivating, growing operations, and quality control in the city; however, those uses, aside from dispensaries, are industrial zone operations. The dispensary approved on Monday is in a highway commercial zone.

Phillips said the building will have high security. Vance described it as almost like a bank.

“We’re required to camera inside and outside of the building,” Phillips said. “Camera transactions. We build a secure area within where we store product. Frankly crime has not been a huge issue with our stores.”

The facility is currently in the design phase of the building. Phillips said that phase is expected to be complete about mid-December. He anticipates starting the construction process with bidding after the first of the new year and expects the construction timeline to be four months. Then the company will move into the state licensing process, which Phillips said could be anywhere from two weeks to two months.

Richard Fowler is a member of LINK nky’s editorial board, which helps us stay true to our guiding principles.