Harvest Health and Recreation, a vertically integrated cannabis company, announced Tuesday it will acquire CannaPharmacy which owns or operates (through management companies) cannabis licenses in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland and holds a minority interest in a pending licensee in Colombia.
Inside a cannabis flowering rooms at PharmaCann in Montgomery, N.Y. (AARON HOUSTON)
For New Jersey the acquisition includes one of six operational – and 12 awarded by the state – fully vertical licenses, permitting cultivation, retail sales and manufacturing.
CannaPharmacy has operations in four contiguous northeastern U.S. states. The licenses and assets of CannaPharmacy will add to Harvest’s extensive national footprint, already the country’s largest and deepest in terms of licenses and facilities permitted across 17 states and Puerto Rico.
One of those stores is located in Woodbridge, a dispensary flagship store open and operational on a major highway since 2013. This unit has served more patients and completed more cannabis transactions since inception than any other store, according to the New Jersey Department of Health annual report in April 2018.
Additionally, a satellite store is approved and under construction in Union on one of the most heavily trafficked highway corridors in the state, according to Harvest, at the intersection of the Garden State Parkway, NJ Turnpike, Route 22 and Route 78.
There is also approval pending for a third dispensary in Monmouth County, which presently does not have a single dispensary. There are other openings and plans in the works for Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware, as well.
“Harvest has led the cannabis market in the Western United States for years,” said Jason Vedadi, executive chairman of Harvest. “This acquisition will similarly widen and extend our U.S. foothold to the East Coast.
“When you add that to our existing dominant position in the Pennsylvania and Maryland markets, acquisition of CBx and its suite of brands, as well as our pending acquisitions of Falcon and Verano, with its holdings throughout the eastern seaboard and brands and infrastructure to leverage, we are looking at Harvest becoming a household name throughout the region in a matter of months,” he added.
Upon closing of this transaction and closing of its previously announced acquisition of Verano Holdings, Harvest will hold licenses that allow it to operate up to 213 facilities, including 130 retail dispensaries.
New Jersey has 42,000 medical patients and growing 60 percent annually.
