A cannabis company in the process of selling its North Shuswap property now goes by a new name.
On Nov. 5, the company formerly known as Citation Growth Corp. announced it had changed its name to Fiore Cannabis Ltd. Prior to Citation, the company went by the name Liht Cannabis Corp and, before that, Marapharm Ventures.
In a related media release, FIORE CEO Erik Anderson explained the name change had to do with updating the company’s identity in relation to branding in the Nevada market, home to the FIORE’s North Las Vegas Apex facility.
FIORE owns a 40-acre lot in Celista that, in 2018, it had planned to transform into a medical cannabis production facility with 10 buildings, each 10,000-square feet. The plan was to use the former family farm to grow 1.6 million grams of cannabis annually.
In an April 15, 2020 release, FIORE, then Citation, announced that on April 8, it had executed a letter of intent for the sale of the property with Indigenomix International, a private Saskatchewan-based business, for the agreed price of $8.5 million.
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In a June 2020 release, Citation announced the transaction had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The most recent company release on the transaction came in September, when it announced the agreement with Indigenomix for the sale of its Celista assets had been extended. However, with continuing challenges from the global pandemic, “the ability to close the transaction on the latest timeline has proven challenging.”
“We are working together to close the sale of our Celista assets to the Indigenomix group and are confident we can do so in a reasonable time frame,” commented Citation president Erik Anderson. “Unfortunately, we have not been able to meet our most recent deadline due to COVID-19 restrictions, but we have been given further confidence through additional non-refundable deposits. We look forward to releasing information regarding a successful transaction shortly.”
In an October 2020 letter to investors, Anderson listed among achievements for the recent quarter the signing of the letter of intent with Indigenomix for the sale of the Celista property.
“Citation still plans to divest its Celista, B.C. asset to Indigenomix and is working collaboratively with their team to finalize financing to complete the sale,” reads an Oct. 9 company release. “Further updates will be made available over the coming weeks.”
That same month, Deanna Kawatski, who lives across the road from Citation’s Celista property, said that apart from the placement of a “crude” sign saying, “Do not enter construction site,” there’d been little notable activity on the property.
