STRATFORD – The opening of a $34 million, 40,000-square-foot cannabis cultivation, processing and manufacturing plant at the former Porter & Chester Institute next month has its roots in Missouri in 2022 and Hartford in 2012.

Pending final state and city approvals, Borealis Cannabis by Shangri-La plans to open its facility at 305 Hathaway Drive the middle of next month, according to co-founder and CEO Nevil Patel.

It will be the company’s second active cultivation and third active manufacturing facility in Connecticut. The new 10,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Waterbury will process the trimmed flower into finished consumer products in all categories.

The company is in the middle of inspections by state regulators and the City of Stratford, which need to issue a certificate of occupancy.

“Our company is rapidly expanding throughout the country, but especially here in Connecticut,” said co-owner Jocelyn Cerda. “We have four retail locations – two in Norwalk, one in Waterbury, one in Plainville and two upcoming stores.”

Cerda, Nevil Patel and his brother Dr. Kepal Patel, CEO, founded Shangri-La in 2022 in Missouri. That was shortly before the Connecticut legislature passed the adult use cannabis law, which made it legal for recreational marijuana. In 2012, the state General Assembly approved the medical marijuana law that allowed use of the drug for patients who need it for pain relief.

Mayor Laura Hoydick – a former state representative – joined a handful of Shangri-La officials Tuesday afternoon to cut the ribbon on the Borealis Cannabis plant. She recalled a personal story that has resonated with her as she pushed through the medical marijuana law.

“I just want to talk about my history with cannabis and my time in the General Assembly with my friend Joe Gresko (deputy speaker of the state House) when we were both state reps,” Hoydick said. “A very good colleague of ours had a husband who was dying of cancer. The only kind of relief he could get was through cannabis, which was illegal at the time.”

The manufacturing process

The Stratford facility, which hopes to hire 80 workers, is expected to produce 1,000 pounds of untrimmed cannabis flower annually by using three high-capacity, drying rooms, a curing room, vault and room for manufacturing, according to Tyler King, director of operations for the Stamford plant.

“Twenty-thousand square feet is the total canopy that we are going to start with,” said Nevil Patel. “We do have the capacity to increase that. That 20,000 square feet will be packaged in the form of a flower, pre-rolled. Then, we will have fresh frozen, which will produce solventless product that is your concentrate, your live resin, live rosin vapes.”

He explained the premium brand coming out of the Stratford facility will be Borealis but that the company has two white label manufacturing brands that we will be doing for others in the cannabis market.

By the first quarter of 2026 Dr. Patel expects the company to have the first harvest and product ready to sell by then. The products include pre-rolled weed and edibles. As Dr. Patel said, “It truly is a science.”

During a tour of the facility, King explained the scientific process that creates the cannabis by cloning naturally grown plants complete with a “mother” room for the original clippings used to create the product.

“Municipal water comes in,” said King, who has a degree in horticulture from Oregon State University. “You’ll see a lot of filtration equipment. We like really fresh, clean water. One of the biggest aspects of this facility is a rhythm system. That means it controls the environment, the tanks, the fertilizer. It really gives the plants everything they need at every step they need it.

“Everything is, for the most part, clone production. So that means we need stabilized mothers. Those are clean genetics. We take a 6-8-inch clipping from the mother. They go into rooting hormone, a dome for 10-14 days. From there, we produce roots.”

Thanks for weed activists

Cerda, who also runs a community -supported agriculture system for Hartford, took a moment to thank the activists who made her company a reality in Connecticut.

“I want to thank the folks that have made it possible for us to work with legal and regulated cannabis: Cannabis medical patients, cannabis advocates and those who are formerly and currently incarcerated for cannabis-related offenses,” she said. “They worked hard throughout the years, since the ’70s, to get here.”