The next few weeks will be pivotal in determining whether farmer Tim Schartner will be growing tomatoes next summer in his proposed million-square-foot greenhouse or if the vanguard project, its construction halted in 2021, will wither away, his lawyer says.
Michael Kelly told the town's Planning Board last week that the financing plan for the $80-million project is contingent on the board granting at least conditional approval to the greenhouse's development plan by next month so the project can resume and reassure its financial backers. Otherwise "the financing for this project is going to expire at the end of September," he said. "That would be the death of the project, which I don't think anyone wants to see after all the work that's been put into it by the Schartners and others."
Peter Posk, a business advisor for Schartner and his partnered company, Rhode Island Grows LLC, says a Nevada bank is expected to loan the project $41.5 million, backed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank in turn will loan the project $21.75 million, Posk said, and the rest of the project is being financed through private investment and the anticipated pre-sale of tax credits. But the financing probably won't be released until the project gets a green light to proceed and members of the Schartner family transfer ownership of the property to Rhode Island Grows at a real estate closing in September.
Read more at providencejournal.com