Dennis Hof’s former Pahrump home to become cannabis lounge

A Pahrump property once owned by local brothel owner and politician Dennis Hof is expected to be converted to Nye County’s first cannabis lounge.

Nevada expanded its budding marijuana consumption lounge industry last week after regulators voted to approve an application from Pahrump-based KV Group.

Greenlight Preserve, as the lounge is set to be named, will be a “farm-to-table” lounge that will “combine high quality food and cannabis.”

“The idea would be to move out of our home to convert our home into the actual lounge, to create more of a health-and-wellness atmosphere with a farm-to-table restaurant where people feel comfortable to educate themselves on the use of cannabis,” Steve Cantwell, a co-owner of KV Group, told the Cannabis Compliance Board last week.

Cantwell and his wife Kouanin Villa purchased the former Hof home, along with five acres at 6451 S. Homestead Road in June 2019 with the profits of their cannabis business, Green Life Productions. Their three-bedroom, two-bath, 2,780-square-foot home served as Hof’s primary residence before the dead pimp went on to win his race for the Nevada Legislature.

Once Cantwell and Villa move out at the beginning of next year, the home will be converted into one of only a handful of cannabis consumption lounges approved in the state, and the only one that has been OK’d in Nye County.

If the idea of a community cannabis lounge in Pahrump gives you pause, don’t expect a “pot-lover’s play place.”

Cantwell says his cannabis lounge aims to educate clients on the use of cannabis.

“We’re not going the party route,” he said.

The Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board has approved a limited number of consumption lounges in the state, including licenses for two others in Las Vegas that were detailed along with the plans for Pahrump’s lounge earlier this month.

Las Vegas-based Deep Roots Harvest reportedly plans to operate a lounge on an existing outdoor patio attached to its dispensary’s location on Blue Diamond Road. The patio, which was formerly part of Brando’s Sports Bar, will be brought up to compliance requirements.

“We anticipate that our patrons will use the space more as a tasting-style, microbrewery type-concept due to the fairly small square footage and limited occupancy,” Deep Roots Harvest COO Jonathan Marshall told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Global Harmony, a company that already operates a dispensary in Las Vegas, will reportedly operate its new lounge similar to a traditional bar.

Not all cannabis

Cantwell, a Pahrump native who was the 2008 World Extreme Cagefighting Champion, isn’t just a cultivator of cannabis. About three acres of his property in Pahrump is dedicated to growing organic fruits and vegetables for another arm of his operations, Green Life Produce.

Their farm products are sold in their on-site store off Hawkins Way and at the farmers market at Tractor Supply on Saturday. Its seasonal harvests are served at the Farmhouse Kitchen at Gold Town Casino.

“I took every dime from Green Life Productions and reinvested it,” said Cantwell, who donates unsold produce to the local VFW.

How cannabis helped Cantwell

Cantwell says he’s personally experienced the health benefits of cannabis.

He started his legalized cannabis growing business in 2014 with the guidance of his savvy wife, and several local investors/contractors.

Cantwell says he uses a regenerative growing method for cannabis.

“We pioneered this on the cannabis scene eight years ago,” he said. “We introduced this whole organic cannabis growing style to the cannabis industry, and no one had ever thought about doing raised beds, living soil indoors at that time.”

At the time, Cantwell said critics laughed at him.

“I was kind of a laughingstock,” he said. “I didn’t wait for the cannabis regulations to come out. I based my entire growing system off the existing USDA regulations. So, I modeled everything that was done outdoors and I took what I could indoors, and I perfected it.”

His no-till farming method is more environmentally friendly than others, he said.

“When you run a no-till organic system, typically that means that you’re going to spend less energy ,” he said. “You’re going to do less harm to the planet, less disturbance to the soil and you’re not going to use synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides.”

It’s something that future customers to the cannabis lounge might learn about.

Taylor R. Avery of the Las Vegas Review-Journal contributed to this story.