i updated some. QASPQ&A/ excerpt/ Still, the 2.1 billion shares of stock in the company are considered low-market value as Vigil said Quasar Aerospace closed at .0010 of a cent on Tuesday afternoon.
Working on the First Coast: Quasar Aeronautics landing in marijuana support business
Donnell Vigil is in the midst of what might be a very dynamic business transition going from an aerospace development and flight school to a medicinal marijuana development company.
Vigil, the CEO of Quasar Aerospace Industries Inc. based at Herlong Recreational Airport in western Duval County completed the acquisition of a marijuana cultivation company this week. She spent $250,000 acquiring Hydro-Grow of Colorado Springs, Colo., where recreational marijuana use is legal in that state.
While Vigil will continue to run the cultivation company in Colorado, she is also preparing to open operations here in Jacksonville. Her business interest here is contingent on the Florida referendum scheduled for Nov. 4 when the state’s voters will be asked if they want to approve the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
While Vigil runs her aeronautics business and subsidiary flight schools Atlantic Aviation and A-Cent Aviation along with flight and job certification services, she said she’s committing to the venture of the medicinal marijuana business. She said she anticipates her Jacksonville business will be serving as an equipment supplier to and a leasing agent for marijuana cultivators with “grow centers” in Florida. She won’t be doing the actual growing.
There’s already been a sampling of the financial interest in the move. When Vigil indicated she was exploring the medicinal marijuana field in March, her company’s stock jumped 900 percent. Still, the 2.1 billion shares of stock in the company are considered low-market value as Vigil said Quasar Aerospace closed at .0010 of a cent on Tuesday afternoon.
You made it public that you were thinking about this marijuana investment in the industry. What made you make the leap from consideration to actually acquiring this Hydro-Grow business?
I found it fascinating — the new industry that’s growing. I have a passion for it. I was born and raised in Colorado. … My husband (Paul Casanova) was diagnosed with bladder cancer, so it’s a little bit of a personal thing.
What does that mean in terms of this business deal?
For me, I’ve lost family members to cancer, I’ve watched them suffer. Watching him go through what he’s going through leads me to support the medical marijuana industry. I’ve looked at the market and it’s not often that you can enter a market that’s at the very forefront beginning of growth. I see the ability to generate large revenues off it and increase our business model by adding it as a subsidiary.
You are involved in flight schools. But are you expanding or are you considering shifting your business, are you thinking about getting out of flight schools?
Right now, it’s just an additional aspect to the business plan. So, rather than a change, it’s just an addition.
You said, “Right now,” but are you considering possibly entirely shifting focus?
Possibly, the ability to grow this business and expand this business can be tremendous. We plan on taking it nationwide. We’re going to start off with grow centers. After we complete a second expansion, then we plan on purchasing a warehouse and starting a cultivation center. That cultivation center can then suit dispensaries and other growers.
Is this going to be in the Jacksonville area?
As long as it passes legally here, absolutely.
Speaking of legalities, when you’re getting into a business like this that isn’t even officially legal yet, what kind of complications are there and what do you need to know in terms of permitting and things of that nature? How does that work?
The greatest opportunity is what I took. What that is, is that there are little to no limitations on owning a grow store. Because a grow store is a service provider to the industry. If you are going to grow an organic garden, you can come into the grow store. If you are going to do any type of gardening, you can come in there and buy equipment that is there. It just so happens that with the growth in the legal and medical marijuana industry, those are our new clientele who come into the store spending large masses of dollars to grow the marijuana. I can open up a grow store here in Jacksonville today even with it not being legal because there is nothing illegal within this store and nothing regulated in this store.
As long you’re not growing marijuana?
Exactly. … I like to look at it as during the Gold Rush, you had the individuals that sold the pick axes and the pans. They took part in the Gold Rush and made just as much if not more.
You talked about warehouses, what does that mean?
As the cultivation center, I am not going to be the grower. I’m going to be primarily the landlord. …
I understand public opinion polls show more than 80 percent of Floridians support the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes. But still, the vote hasn’t been cast. Isn’t this a fairly high-risk venture here on your part without it being approved yet?
Where I’m located in Colorado, it is legal in that state. So we’re going to continue business out there. Washington state, it’s legal there. If it looks like it doesn’t pass here, there will be a hold until it does pass in this state. As of right now, I have the full intention of bringing it here to Jacksonville. I believe with that 80 percent support, I think it is going to pass. We will see it hit this state as well as the entire country. I think it’s going to become vast and we want to be a frontrunner with that.
There is all kind of speculation what this might mean for commerce. Yet the chambers of commerce, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce all the way down to JAX Chamber have not supported this. JAX Chamber President Daniel Davis in a February Times-Union story said, “It’s going to be very low [economic impact].” How do you respond to that?
He needs to look at what’s happening in Colorado in reference to the revenue that is being generated, the revenue that is going back [to the state] in taxes, the amount of money that is being made out there. It’s a large amount. … For me, I am going to capture revenue and capitalize off of this new industry.
You’re in the aviation industry and you’re taking part in the marijuana industry, do you recognize the irony there?
It’s big irony, there’s a lot of irony there (laughs).
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