State bets big on company’s CBD expansion, investing $750K

NewBridge Global Ventures Inc. is nearing the completion of a CBD processing facility and aims to build a canning facility in the Moriarty area in the coming years for two products it makes in-house.

The San Francisco-based agricultural technology company’s expansion on the King family farm — its partner that grows the industrial hemp that NewBridge turns into CBD — is expected to create nearly three dozen jobs over the next five years. It has garnered support from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration, which this month announced it plans to pour in $750,000 in Local Economic Development Act, or LEDA, funds into the expansion.

State officials, the company and the family of former Gov. Bruce King are making a big bet on CBD, noting that NewBridge’s expansion aligns with the governor’s priorities to expand infrastructure and manufacturing.

“The Economic Development Department supports this initiative that leverages local resources and New Mexico’s rich agricultural heritage to create quality jobs in a rural community,” New Mexico EDD Secretary-designate Rob Black said in a statement.

The company harnesses a patented technology that allows it to extract oil from a hemp plant when fresh — a much different process than the ethanol or supercritical CO2 methods used to source the chemical compound, according to NewBridge CEO Lance Dalton.

With NewBridge’s tech — developed over two years and which some in the brewing industry use to extract oil from hops — the company can take hemp freshly grown on the farm and “preserve these things called terpenes and flavonoids.”

“That’s the magic ingredient that gives us greater bioavailability and the health benefits,” Dalton told the Journal. “No one else can do this. They usually add back terpenes from other plants. It doesn’t work the same.”

Dalton said the CBD extracted by NewBridge will be sold to product manufacturers like Nestlé, Purina and General Mills, which are still awaiting approval from the Food and Drug Administration to make the chemical compound a dietary supplement. However, the company does produce two products of its own — a cream and a beverage manufactured out of state — that will eventually be made in New Mexico with the addition of the Moriarty canning facility.

With the expansion, Moriarty’s government will act as the fiscal agent for the LEDA funds, which the company will receive as it meets specific benchmarks. The Estancia Valley Economic Development Association is also assisting NewBridge with site selection and technical expertise as the company eyes further expansion.

The NewBridge project will “positively impact and boost the local economy, creating well-paying jobs, with a positive economic ripple effect throughout both Torrance and southern Santa Fe Counties,” said Myra Pancrazio, the economic association’s former director.

Dalton said the CBD extracted by NewBridge has various applications, including combating inflammation and nausea. The company spent about $200,000 a day over two years perfecting the technology.

Following that, Dalton said he had offers from many different hemp farmers before he eventually settled on an offer from Sam King, who helps run the farm that produces the plant for NewBridge near Moriarty. That has helped keep the company investing in New Mexico, which has already spent over $20 million.

“I’m not trying to overexaggerate this or whatever, but listen, (Gov.) Gavin Newsom didn’t want us to leave California. They were going to work out a deal with us there,” Dalton said. “New Mexico, when we got there and I met Sam King, I was so impressed and taken by his family history, everything that he said to me.”