HAYDEN — A Canadian hemp manufacturing company is under contract to buy 664 acres of land in and around the town of Hayden with plans to build out the property with affordable housing constructed with hemp-based materials over the next 25 years.

This is the third land purchase near Hayden for Vancouver-based Global Hemp Group this year, and it now owns about 874 acres.

In a release announcing the buy Monday, the company said this purchase specifically will expand the amount of land it has for hemp cultivation in the short term, with it eventually including construction of homes.

This is part of the company’s Colorado Hemp Agro-Industrial Zone project, which looks to prove the viability of hemp-based construction materials to build homes that are both sustainable and affordable, according to Global Hemp Group’s website.

The development is the kind of business Hayden has been trying to attract as it anticipates the closing of the Hayden Station by 2028 and the loss of tax revenue that will come with that, said Town Manager Matt Mendisco. Still, Mendisco said town leaders have only had “the most high level” conversations with the company and were not responsible for recruiting it to the area.

In May, the company bought 44 acres of land within the town limits of Hayden that it said would be a multiuse property that serves as the center of the project’s manufacturing hub. Later that month, it bought another 175 acres of annexed land.

“This vertically integrated project contemplates the beneficial use of substantial existing water resources to irrigate and cultivate industrial hemp, process and utilize hemp in the on-site manufacturing of green renewable construction products and finally build affordable carbon neutral/carbon negative housing,” the company said in the release.

Global Hemp Group’s President Curt Huber could not be immediately reached for comment Monday.

The land is part of the southernmost limits of Hayden, with some of the nearly 900 acres the company owns being outside the city limits as well, though it is still within the town’s master plan. This particular parcel has been talked about for development since the early 2000s, Mendisco said.

“We said, ‘Here is our master plan, here is what the master plan calls out for those areas, talk to us when you’re more down the road,’” Mendisco recalled about when the company reached out. “I would anticipate that those conversations will start to be more detailed when they start moving the pieces around.”

The company wants to use the 44-acre plot as a “showcase venue” to display hemp building technologies and promote it as a viable industry across the country, according to its website. About 30 acres of this land was set aside to start exploring what strains of hemp grow best in Northwest Colorado.

Mendisco said the development is exciting for the town, and an out-of-town company coming in and buying up land shouldn’t necessarily concern residents.

“We are fortunate because our master plan is really, really clear about how that area is to develop,” Mendisco said. “We have provided documents to them, and they’re very aware of it.”

Mendisco said hemp also makes sense in Hayden because there is already Natural Path Botanicals in town, which produces CBD products using hemp. But Global Hemp Group is thinking bigger, seeing building materials made from hemp as a larger industry than CDB products, according to the website.

The development also fits with Hayden’s tradition of agriculture, Mendisco said.

“It is not farming wheat or raising cattle, but it is still agriculture,” Mendisco said. “I think, done right and partnered with the community correctly, they could be very successful, and that could provide a lot of jobs.”