Top 100 Greenhouse Grower to Close in November

Bay City Flower ClematisBay City Flower, a Half Moon Bay, CA-based operation that was #24 on Greenhouse Grower’s 2019 Top 100 Growers list with 2.5 million square feet of environmentally controlled production, recently announced that it will be shutting down on Nov. 10 

“It has become increasingly difficult to run a flower farm and compete nationally while operating in the costliest place in the nation,” said Bay City Flower’s CEO Harrison Higaki in a statement posted on the San Francisco Business Times website. “After four generations and 110 years in floriculture, we have decided that the time has come for us to wind down the selling of our flowers.” 

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Higaki says the company said is looking at alternative uses for its two properties, one in Half Moon Bay and the other in Pescadero. A total greenhouse area of 925,000 square feet would be “excellent for cannabis or hemp,” based on a listing on LoopNet. This property is zoned for cannabis and/or hemp cultivation for clones, flower, and seed. 

Bay City Flower was founded in Redwood City in 1910 by Japanese immigrant Nobuo Higaki, who originally grew cut carnations, roses, chrysanthemums, and gardenias for florists in San Francisco. The nursery moved to Half Moon Bay in 1959. CEO Harrison Higaki is the grandson of the founder. 

The company has survived dark days, shifting to growing vegetables during the Great Depression and surviving the Japanese internment of the 1940s.  

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A local Bay Area grower leased out the family’s greenhouses, and continued harvesting their existing crops, and a Redwood City banker collected rent on behalf of the family,” the company’s website said in describing how the business survived that chapter in American history. 

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