Just in time for marijuana’s unofficial holiday, Secaucus-based Harmony Foundation has filed an application to open inside of a two-story building at 227 Coles Street. Currently home to a Moishe’s Moving Systems outpost, Harmony is working with New York-based design firm Wolfgang & Hite to overhaul the space into a dispensary that spans about 16,000 square feet.
Terrapin filed a lawsuit shortly thereafter claiming that Harmony never submitted an application to Hoboken’s Medical Cannabis Review Board as part of their application. Under regulations established last June, prospective dispensaries have to submit a “favorable report” amid other requirements before opening.
The decision could put two competing dispensaries just a block apart in the city. The state only has 15 medical marijuana dispensaries currently. Some are more than an hour away from a competitor.
Terrapin, which has dispensaries in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Colorado, sued the Hoboken Planning Board and Harmony last fall. It claimed Harmony lacked valid approval because it bypassed a newer municipal law requiring applicants to come before the review board.
Jersey City doesn’t have any cannabis dispensaries yet, but the City Council will review an ordinance this week creating a 2% tax on medicinal marijuana sales.
While legislation legalizing recreational marijuana has stalled in Trenton, state law allows municipalities to levy a tax of up to 2% on medical marijuana sales. Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop tweeted over the weekend that the tax revenue generated from such sales would be directed toward affordable housing efforts in the city.
New Jersey officially has more than a dozen medical marijuana dispensaries open, while the state continues to craft legislation to expand to recreational pot sales, too, as approved by state voters this fall.
The Apothecarium Dispensary in Phillipsburg is the first such facility in Warren County and the first New Jersey location for Canadian-based TerrAscend, which also has dispensaries in Pennsylvania, California and Nevada.
Harmony Foundation’s proposal to build a medical marijuana facility on Route 94 in Lafayette is on hold until the land purchase is completed. In late May, Lafayette’s land use board approved a 30,000-plus-square-foot addition to the facility on the site plan. “As far as I know, Harmony hasn’t yet closed on the property yet,” said land use secretary Stephanie Pizzulo. Harmony Foundation is based in Secaucus, N.J., and has a dispensary there.
A Secaucus-based company called Harmony Dispensary expects to open a marijuana dispensary near the Hoboken train station by the end of the calendar year, but two other companies hope to come to that area as well — and now, one is suing the other.
Law 360 reported on Sept. 24 that Terrapin, a cannabis company that also wants to open a dispensary near the train station, is accusing Harmony of "bypassing New Jersey's vetting process" and wants Harmony's approval reconsidered.
Terrapin, who have proposed their facility about a block away at 86 River Street, filed a lawsuit on September 22 in Hudson county court looking to overturn Harmony’s approvals. Named in the case are Hoboken’s planning board, SBRE Realty Management, and Harmony Foundation.
The Mile Square City could soon become New Jersey’s Mile High City.
With the legal recreational marijuana on New Jersey’s ballot in November, cannabis companies are rushing to secure places in Hoboken. Colorado-based medical marijuana company Terrapin is the latest company to go public with plans to open a Hoboken dispensary, announcing the move in a Wednesday press release.
The Jersey City-based land use consulting firm of Dresdner Robin recently completed zoning analyses for a proposed medical marijuana dispensary in Hoboken, after the Planning Board approved the plan in July, a spokesman for the firm said recently. It's now likely to open by the end of the calendar year, a spokesman said.
The Hoboken City Council first voted on revisions to the zoning ordinance for that area back in January. The Planning Board voted to grant conditional use for the site at a special meeting on July 14 (minutes here).