Meeting its goal with one day to spare, Restore Integrative Wellness Center is opening Philadelphia’s first medical marijuana dispensary on Wednesday.
The center is in the city’s Fishtown neighborhood on Frankford Avenue across from the Fillmore. The 5,000-square-foot dispensary is in a renovated building that dates back to the 1870s and was previously a welding shop.
The company had set a goal of opening the dispensary in May.
Restore’s initial hours of operation will be Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Its product offering will encompass of variety of products from all five of Pennsylvania’s operational medical marijuana growers.
“Our mission is to be a friendly and reliable source of medical marijuana,” the company said in a statement.
Restore is led by co-owner Steven O, who is also the owner and operator of Reboot Integrative Wellness Center. Reboot has offices in Chinatown and Elkins Park. Other Restore owners include Vipul Patel, the company’s COO, and Dimple Thakrar, marketing director.
The company plans to open a second location in Elkins Park this fall. It has not yet decided on a site for its third dispensary allowed under its permit, according to Restore spokesman Jonathan Monk.
This spring has been was a busy month for medical marijuana dispensaries in southeastern Pennsylvania.
▪ In late April, TerraVida Holistic Centers opened Montgomery County’s first dispensary in Abington.
▪ Earlier this month, two other dispensaries started filling medical marijuana prescriptions when Illera Healthcare opened a site in Plymouth Meeting, and Keystone Shops opened a site in King of Prussia.
▪ Also in May, Beyond/Hello open a medical marijuana dispensary in Bristol, Bucks County. Beyond/Hello expects to open the first dispensary in Center City Philadelphia on the 1200 block of 1206 Sansom St. this fall.
The new dispensaries joined existing facilities that opened during the first quarter of the year in Devon (Keystone Shops), Sellersville (TerraVida) and Phoenixville (Cure Pennsylvania).
