Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
Allentown's first licensed medical marijuana dispensary features a partnership between a fifth-generation Lehigh Valley native and a big-time medical cannabis company that has helped secure more than 50 licenses in states across the country.
Mission Partners LLC, a subsidiary of Phoenix-based management consulting firm 4Front Ventures, hopes to open its first Mission Pennsylvania dispensary early next year in a building at 2733 W. Emmaus Ave., Allentown, that currently houses MP Outfitters.
One of Mission Pennsylvania's principals is Ari Molovinsky, a 1997 Parkland High School graduate whose father, Michael, lives in South Whitehall Township and operates the "Molovinsky on Allentown" blog.
On Thursday, The Morning Call interviewed Ari Molovinsky and Mission Partners CEO Andrew Thut.
Q: How did the Mission Pennsylvania team come together?
Thut: Mission and our parent company, 4Front, were founded by Josh Rosen and Kris Krane. Kris is a career advocate for medical cannabis. His father developed a rare terminal lung condition at a young age, and medical cannabis was really his only relief. Kris is a guy who has spent his life dedicated to the legalization and professionalization of the medical marijuana industry. 4Front was founded in 2011. ... Mission Partners (formed in 2015) is a division of 4Front. When a new state opens up, we find local partners who are ingrained in the community and are presumably good business folks who we'd like to partner with. We try to find a good melding of industry expertise and local flavor to it as well.
Q: Ari, how did you get involved?
Molovinsky: I've been in New York for the last 15 years but still have a lot of connections in the Lehigh Valley. I've spent the majority of my career in the media space, mostly at Sirius XM Radio, and then after that I began consulting in the health care sector. I started getting interested in medical cannabis around the time Gov. (Tom) Wolf was signing the bill (legalizing medical cannabis) into law. A good friend of mine is an attorney specializing in medical cannabis, and he introduced me to various organizations and educational conferences. There's a lot of stigma associated with the industry, but I started to hear stories about how cannabis really helps patients – stories from the person whose daughter has epilepsy, or from someone whose loved one is going through end-of-life care. It was really moving to me, and I started looking a little deeper at the opportunities in Pennsylvania. ... Contingent on the growth of this, I'll likely be moving back to the Lehigh Valley soon with my family.
Q: Mission's first dispensary opened recently in Chicago, right?
Thut: It opened yesterday (Wednesday). We're very excited about it. 4Front has clients across the country who are open for operations, but this is our first Mission-branded dispensary that opened. We're currently engaged in expanding our grow facility in Chicago as well, and ... we're slated to open (dispensaries) late this year or early next year in Massachusetts and Maryland as well.
Q: What are some of the opportunities and challenges you see in Pennsylvania?
Thut: Obviously the population of Pennsylvania from a per numbers standpoint makes it a potentially attractive place to do business. The main challenge we see: Currently there's no flower (Pennsylvania's law prohibits smoking medical marijuana). If you look at more mature markets like Colorado, flower is somewhere between 40-50 percent of the market. You have about half the market that won't be included in the program. That will likely have an impact on the number of patients who sign up in the immediate future. But typically once these programs get started, the regulators have a chance to see what's working and not working.
Q: Any products you're looking to start with, given that the dried plant is out of the equation?
Thut: One of the advantages of being a national provider, you have good lenses on what's working and not working in other states. We're going to have a variety of tincture and oil-based products that we've seen historically in other states have brought a lot of relief.
Q: Why did you choose the particular location at Emmaus Avenue Plaza in south Allentown?
Molovinsky: Given the access to public transportation and the proximity to the interstate, we thought it was very attractive. Also, the fact that it's a stand-alone structure that can be easily secured.
Q: The Department of Health must deem you operational in the next six months. What are your next steps?
Thut: We've mobilized our operations team to start laying out plans for reconfiguring space. We hope to have plans locked down by the end of summer, and construction will start soon thereafter ... We'll plan on pushing forward with architectural plans and construction as we move toward Christmas, and we hope to be open as medicine comes onto the market in Q1 (next year).
Q: Dispensary licensees are allowed to open up to three locations in Pennsylvania. Do you have any plans to expand?
Molovinsky: It's definitely something we're actively discussing and intend on pursuing. We still have yet to finalize what locations we're going to be utilizing, but it's definitely on the horizon.
Q: Can you say whether there's anyone else from the Lehigh Valley involved in your business at this point?
Molovinsky: We're still hashing out the responsibilities ... we'll be able to provide more clarity on that as we move closer to the launch. We obviously will be hiring people from the area over the course of first few years of operations, and we're currently estimating over a dozen employees.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Lehigh Valley Business Cycle: Health Care - Lehigh Valley Business Cycle
Author: Andrew Wagaman
Contact: Morning Call Staff Contact List - The Morning Call
Photo Credit: AMY HERZOG
Website: Allentown, Lehigh Valley & Pennsylvania News - The Morning Call
Mission Partners LLC, a subsidiary of Phoenix-based management consulting firm 4Front Ventures, hopes to open its first Mission Pennsylvania dispensary early next year in a building at 2733 W. Emmaus Ave., Allentown, that currently houses MP Outfitters.
One of Mission Pennsylvania's principals is Ari Molovinsky, a 1997 Parkland High School graduate whose father, Michael, lives in South Whitehall Township and operates the "Molovinsky on Allentown" blog.
On Thursday, The Morning Call interviewed Ari Molovinsky and Mission Partners CEO Andrew Thut.
Q: How did the Mission Pennsylvania team come together?
Thut: Mission and our parent company, 4Front, were founded by Josh Rosen and Kris Krane. Kris is a career advocate for medical cannabis. His father developed a rare terminal lung condition at a young age, and medical cannabis was really his only relief. Kris is a guy who has spent his life dedicated to the legalization and professionalization of the medical marijuana industry. 4Front was founded in 2011. ... Mission Partners (formed in 2015) is a division of 4Front. When a new state opens up, we find local partners who are ingrained in the community and are presumably good business folks who we'd like to partner with. We try to find a good melding of industry expertise and local flavor to it as well.
Q: Ari, how did you get involved?
Molovinsky: I've been in New York for the last 15 years but still have a lot of connections in the Lehigh Valley. I've spent the majority of my career in the media space, mostly at Sirius XM Radio, and then after that I began consulting in the health care sector. I started getting interested in medical cannabis around the time Gov. (Tom) Wolf was signing the bill (legalizing medical cannabis) into law. A good friend of mine is an attorney specializing in medical cannabis, and he introduced me to various organizations and educational conferences. There's a lot of stigma associated with the industry, but I started to hear stories about how cannabis really helps patients – stories from the person whose daughter has epilepsy, or from someone whose loved one is going through end-of-life care. It was really moving to me, and I started looking a little deeper at the opportunities in Pennsylvania. ... Contingent on the growth of this, I'll likely be moving back to the Lehigh Valley soon with my family.
Q: Mission's first dispensary opened recently in Chicago, right?
Thut: It opened yesterday (Wednesday). We're very excited about it. 4Front has clients across the country who are open for operations, but this is our first Mission-branded dispensary that opened. We're currently engaged in expanding our grow facility in Chicago as well, and ... we're slated to open (dispensaries) late this year or early next year in Massachusetts and Maryland as well.
Q: What are some of the opportunities and challenges you see in Pennsylvania?
Thut: Obviously the population of Pennsylvania from a per numbers standpoint makes it a potentially attractive place to do business. The main challenge we see: Currently there's no flower (Pennsylvania's law prohibits smoking medical marijuana). If you look at more mature markets like Colorado, flower is somewhere between 40-50 percent of the market. You have about half the market that won't be included in the program. That will likely have an impact on the number of patients who sign up in the immediate future. But typically once these programs get started, the regulators have a chance to see what's working and not working.
Q: Any products you're looking to start with, given that the dried plant is out of the equation?
Thut: One of the advantages of being a national provider, you have good lenses on what's working and not working in other states. We're going to have a variety of tincture and oil-based products that we've seen historically in other states have brought a lot of relief.
Q: Why did you choose the particular location at Emmaus Avenue Plaza in south Allentown?
Molovinsky: Given the access to public transportation and the proximity to the interstate, we thought it was very attractive. Also, the fact that it's a stand-alone structure that can be easily secured.
Q: The Department of Health must deem you operational in the next six months. What are your next steps?
Thut: We've mobilized our operations team to start laying out plans for reconfiguring space. We hope to have plans locked down by the end of summer, and construction will start soon thereafter ... We'll plan on pushing forward with architectural plans and construction as we move toward Christmas, and we hope to be open as medicine comes onto the market in Q1 (next year).
Q: Dispensary licensees are allowed to open up to three locations in Pennsylvania. Do you have any plans to expand?
Molovinsky: It's definitely something we're actively discussing and intend on pursuing. We still have yet to finalize what locations we're going to be utilizing, but it's definitely on the horizon.
Q: Can you say whether there's anyone else from the Lehigh Valley involved in your business at this point?
Molovinsky: We're still hashing out the responsibilities ... we'll be able to provide more clarity on that as we move closer to the launch. We obviously will be hiring people from the area over the course of first few years of operations, and we're currently estimating over a dozen employees.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Lehigh Valley Business Cycle: Health Care - Lehigh Valley Business Cycle
Author: Andrew Wagaman
Contact: Morning Call Staff Contact List - The Morning Call
Photo Credit: AMY HERZOG
Website: Allentown, Lehigh Valley & Pennsylvania News - The Morning Call
