If you’re ever looking for a good example of irony, this is absolutely perfect. A building in Brush, Colo., that once upon a time — 2003 to be exact — was a medium security prison for women, is now tentatively being considered as the new location for a recreational marijuana shop.

According to the Journal-Advocate, a Brush local paper, the prison contained up to 200 inmates but closed down due to budget issues, as well as reduced numbers of female prisoners all across the state of Colorado. Who, though, could have foreseen that Nicholas Erker — the agricultural businessman who bought High Plains Correctional Facility — would now be formally requesting a lift on the prohibition of growing and selling marijuana for recreational use in the city limits. The city, in case you were wondering, is only 100 miles northeast of Denver, where recreational use is perfectly legal. The state of Colorado has placed a legal status on medical marijuana for more than a decade, but recreational legalization only goes as far back as this past January.

Erker has said to the Huffington Post:

“…it is ironic realizing that some people may have been housed here in the past for crimes related to the very products that may end up being grown in the facility.”

Ironic indeed, and so is the fact that we live in such a time when it is possible for Erker, the center of all this attention, to have had no intention of buying a marijuana shop, but now stands to make quite a profit if things go as planned. A public meeting is to be held next Monday, Aug. 11, where it will be determined whether or not recreational marijuana shops should and will be allowed in the community. There has been a noticeable split in Colorado amongst citizens for and against recreational legalization since it began.

Erker also told the Huffington Post:

“We actually did not purchase the prison with the intent of opening a marijuana shop.”

The original plan? Converting the medium security prison, which he purchased in March of this year, to a warehouse and expanded office for a grain business. It is not certain if he is still affiliated with the grain business, but the plans to use the space for it have obviously fallen through.