Ethos Cannabis dispensary set to close Center City location on 420 Day – Philadelphia Business Journal – The Business Journals

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A Center City medical marijuana dispensary is set to close later this month.
Ethos Cannabis will vacate its 807 Locust St. location and lay off the majority of its employees there, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act filing submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.
The company, in its filing, said that the dispensary’s final day of public operations will be April 20, the unofficial cannabis holiday known as 420 Day.
The Ethos WARN notice states that the closure is necessary because the owner of the building receives federal funding, “meaning that they would be ineligible for that funding if they allow medical marijuana to be sold on the property.”
The remainder of the lease was terminated as a result of these circumstances and Ethos is looking for a new location, the company said in a statement.
The Ethos dispensary is located at the corner of 8th and Locust streets, on the ground floor of a 300-unit affordable housing building owned by Hudson Valley Property Group. The store, which sits on the edge of the Jefferson Health campus, opened in 2020.
New York-based Hudson Valley Property Group bought the building just west of Washington Square in November 2021 for $120 million, according to property records. It plans to soon begin a $15 million renovation of the building, formerly known as American Postal Workers House, as part of a larger $153 million project. The improvements will include in-unit bathroom and kitchen replacements, Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility upgrades, lobby and community room renovations, and a new intercom and security camera system.
Hudson Valley recently announced it secured a project-based Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments contract through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as well as low income housing tax credit restrictions.
The firm bought the 321-unit Northgate One Apartments in Camden in January and also plans to renovate and preserve affordable housing at that building.
Ethos has 13 employees at the Locust Street location and two have been offered positions elsewhere in the company, according to the WARN filing. The remaining 11 employees will be laid off and have been offered a severance agreement.
“We understand the impact this decision has on our employees and the community, and we are committed to supporting our team members during this transition,” Ethos Cannabis CEO Gibran Washington said in a statement. “We remain dedicated to our mission of providing access to high-quality cannabis products and will continue our efforts towards federal legalization to prevent similar obstacles in the future.”
Hudson Valley Property Group declined to comment through a spokesperson.
Philadelphia-based Ethos Cannabis has 12 other dispensary locations across Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Ohio, including stores near the Northeast Philadelphia Airport at 2467 Grant Ave. and in Montgomeryville at 921 Bethlehem Pike. Ethos also has a grow/process facility in Fairless Hills. The company said in its WARN notice that displaced Center City employees could apply for jobs at those other locations.
Ethos Cannabis holds a clinical registrant license from the Pennsylvania Department of Health and has worked with the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University on research related to medical cannabis. Ethos employees worked with Jefferson researchers to pre-screen potential patients for enrollment in studies, give feedback about what dispensary patients reported, and provide product-specific information about cannabis products purchased by patients in the studies.
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