Cannabis Dispensary Paying High Rent for Chance to Sell in Pasadena

According to a lease included in a Planning Commission staff report, cannabis seller MME Pasadena Retail will pay more than half a million dollars a year in rent to run a dispensary in Pasadena.

The Planning Commission will discuss conditional use permits or, CUP’s, for MME Pasadena Retail and another dispensary, Tony Fong’s ‘Varda Inc.’, in a telephonic meeting on Wednesday, April 29th at  3 p.m.

According to the staff report, the landlords at 536 S. Fair Oaks Ave. plan to charge MME Pasadena Retail $50,000 per month in rent. Dispensary owners will also first have to pay a lump sum of $250,000 to an existing tenant.

“The initial payment shall be non-refundable and shall not be applied to rent or any other lease expenses,” a document in the report said.

Varda Inc., Tony Fong’s CUP will also be heard. That dispensary would be located at 3341 E. Colorado Blvd. According to that lease, dispensary owners would pay $18,000 a month.

The Planning Commission meeting will be held via Zoom at 3 p.m. Only the audio will be supplied during the meeting. There will be no video feed.

To access the meeting go to:  zoom.us/j/98978437567, or  join the meeting by dialing (669) 900-6833 and entering meeting id number: 989 7843 7567.

Members of the public may participate electronically in the open session portion of the meeting by submitting public comments of any length to Gnunez@cityofpasadena.net prior to 9 a.m. the day of the meeting.

After 9 a.m., and during the meeting, members of the public may submit up to 200 words regarding items on the agenda to:

cityofpasadena.net/planning/public-comment/

This will be the first meeting held by the commission since January.

The city’s ordinance only allows one cannabis dispensary per council district. If the CUPs are approved, that means no other dispensaries would be allowed in Districts 3, 4, 6 and 7.

The City of Pasadena said previously, there were not enough storefronts for all six applicants that were allowed to apply for CUPs.

Harvest Pasadena, and Integral Dena LLC have already been granted conditional use permits in Districts 3 and 7.

In 2018, voters passed Measure CC, the city’s highly regulated process which allows only six cannabis dispensaries — and only one in each of the city’s seven council districts — to operate legally in Pasadena.

The measure also requires dispensaries to maintain strict distance limits from schools, libraries, churches and residential neighborhoods. Nearly 200 businesses applied to do business in Pasadena.

In June, The Atrium Group, Harvest of Pasadena, Integral Associates Dena, Tony Fong, Sweetwater Pasadena and MME Pasadena Retail were picked from among 122 applicants vying for permission to sell marijuana in the city.

The rush to get a highly-valued CUP has led to feuds  between dispensary owners and accusations of corruption against city officials.

The Atrium Group later filed a lawsuit against the city claiming city officials were lenient with Harvest. The lawsuit was dropped in March.

The claim and the lawsuit stemmed from a failed conditional use permit (CUP) application filed by The Atrium Group on June 13 which would have allowed the company to open a dispensary in trendy Old Pasadena, located in City Council District 3. In its CUP application, The Atrium Group informed city officials it planned to operate at 70 W. Union St.

However, just one day before Atrium submitted its CUP application, Harvest of Pasadena submitted an application to operate at 169 W. Colorado Blvd. — a vacant building leased seasonally to a Halloween business that’s located on the northeast corner of Pasadena Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, and also located in District 3.

Officials with Harvest signed a 10-year lease that will see them pay $55,000 per month, or $660,000 a year. The agreement includes annual rent increases with the rent increasing to $726,000 in 2021.