Union City agrees to sell 375 acres to incoming hemp facility

OBION CO., Tenn. — A hemp facility will be making its way to West Tennessee.

“This is a very unusual one. Normally, we get most of our referrals from the state of Tennessee or from TVA,” said Art Sparks, the chairman of Union City’s Joint Economic
Development Corporation.

This particular company, whose name can not yet be disclosed to the public, contacted leaders in Union City about building a new hemp facility.

“This is actually going to be the first of its type of facility in the world, this is cutting edge,” Sparks said.

This facility will be harvesting hemp, but not for the reasons you may be thinking of.

“A lot of people have been growing hemp and harvesting hemp and extracting the oil, this particular company, as we understand it, will be using the fiber content,” Sparks said.

The mayor of Union City says the new business is expected to bring in hundreds of jobs.

“It brings 120 to 150 good paying jobs. Now the company, from what I understand, is going to bring in some of their own people, but they will be hiring people locally here as well,” said mayor Terry Hailey.

Union City’s city council voted unanimously to approve the selling of land to the hemp facility, and leaders say they are excited for the economic growth it will bring to their city.

“We had approximately 375 acres left in our industrial park, and they are buying all the acreage we have out there,” Sparks said.

The hemp facility bought the land at Northwest Tennessee Industrial Park for over 3 million dollars.

There is not yet a timeline for when the company would break ground on the facility.