Green Dragon dispensaries, grow facility to remain open after cash infusion
- Green Dragon, a major dispensary chain in Colorado, will remain open after receiving a $10 million infusion from owner Jim Clark.
- Despite previous announcements of closure, the dispensaries and grow facility will continue operations under the new ownership of Eaze Inc LLC.
- The company plans to hire about 350 employees and implement cosmetic upgrades to the stores in the first half of the year.
- Eaze also intends to expand operations, including introducing weed delivery in 2025 and growing its presence in states like California, Michigan, and Florida.
In an unexpected turn, Green Dragon, one of the largest dispensary chains in Colorado, will keep its stores and grow facility open.
The retailer’s parent company, California-based Eaze, got an infusion of $10 million from its owner, Jim Clark, to remain operating, it announced Tuesday. Clark, the billionaire founder of the defunct tech firm Netscape, foreclosed on the company’s assets in August for $54 million.
“We’ve just been working with the new ownership group to assess what we’re doing in the future,” said Cory Azzalino, Eaze’s CEO. “It’s nothing world-shaking, but I’m excited to keep going.”
The news comes after the company announced last month that Green Dragon would cease operations. The business filed a notice with the Colorado labor department saying it would lay off 59 workers at its 92,000-square-foot grow facility at 830 Wyandot St. in Denver. Azzalino told BusinessDen at the time that all dispensaries would close too.
That will no longer happen, Azzalino said, although the company did close one dispensary in Glenwood Springs about a month ago, bringing its Colorado store count down to 16. Those will remain open when the new year arrives.
Because Eaze is technically operating as a new company, Eaze Inc LLC, instead of the old Eaze Technologies LLC, all that was procedural, Azzalino said. He noted Eaze will need to hire about 350 employees and expects many of the current staff to be retained.
“This is a new and distinct company,” Azzalino said. “So this is really us rehiring anew.”
Nothing will markedly change outside of the shops getting “face lifts,” which will be done in phases through the first half of the year, Azzalino said.
Green Dragon also will start delivering weed in 2025, he noted. Eaze launched in 2014 and calls itself a “pioneer in cannabis delivery,” so the move is on brand.
“Even though it’s been around, it hasn’t really taken off in Colorado,” Azzalino said.
Eaze also operates in California, Michigan and Florida, and the company plans to continue operating 51 dispensaries, 11 delivery hubs and a Florida grow operation. It will hire 1,200 employees across the company, and it will double the Florida cultivation space from 32,000 square feet to 64,000, Azzalino said.
Eaze acquired Green Dragon roughly three years ago, but in mid-2023, Green Dragon co-founders Lisa Leder, Andrew Levine and Alex Levine sued the company for fraud. They alleged Eaze misrepresented its finances in the lead up to the sale and wrongfully fired the trio in February 2023, court documents show. The case was dismissed months later in November for being in the wrong venue, they said.
Andrew Levine filed another civil suit against Eaze on Aug. 6, records show. The suit aims to investigate whether Clark and board member Thomas Jermoluk conspired to acquire the company’s assets at below-market value, according to trade publication Green Market Report. The case is ongoing.
This story originally published in businessden.com.