On Monday, the city’s Cannabis Review Board OK’d Terrapin’s request to offer recreational cannabis alongside medical marijuana in its not-yet-opened storefront at 86 River Street.
According to the plans filed with the board, Terrapin will occupy a 5,000 square-foot space on the first floor of the building. The proposed total occupancy, including employees, will be 48 people and the store will have a large waiting room to accommodate customers.
Terrapin, who became one of the country’s first licensed medical marijuana providers in 2009, has aligned with several groups as part of an effort to give back to the local community. They include Jersey City-based WomenRising, Hudson Pride Center, and Project Help, an organization dedicated to serving homeless veterans.
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.
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.
There appears to a “Green District” of sorts emerging in the Mile Square City as another medicinal pot dispensary is being proposed in the neighborhood near the PATH station.
Colorado-based Terrapin, who became one of the country’s first licensed medical marijuana providers in 2009, has intentions of opening a new outpost in the Riverview Historical Plaza building at 86 River Street. Formerly home to a bank branch, the company is working with Hoboken-based MVMK Architects to revamp the 3,500-square foot space into their latest location.
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.
There’s an unsettling sense of deja vu to recent headlines of big cannabis raids in states that have legalized, from California’s Emerald Triangle to Colorado’s Front Range.
The upswing on such raids in the latter recently won some national media coverage, which provides fodder for opponents of legalization — and for those who favor a more restrictive model of legalization, in which there is no right to home cultivation.
Chris Woods:
Every plant here has an RFID tag. And this is logged seed to sale.
John Ferrugia:
Chris Woods is President Of Terrapin Station, a company that cultivates and dispenses marijuana and THC products for both medical and recreational use. And this is what a legal pot business looks like, complete with special grow lighting.
Chris Woods:
There is a perpetual cultivation cycle that is happening throughout this facility.
John Ferrugia: