Changes at Harvest, Integral Dispensaries Could Lead to More Scrutiny

A letter from a dispensary owner that led city officials to call off Conditional Use Permits (CUP) hearings for two dispensaries, also could lead the city to take a closer look at two dispensaries that have already received CUPs.

According to Timothy Dodd CEO of Sweet Flower, Harvest Pasadena and Integral Dena LLC each should be scrutinized due to changes within the company since they were picked in the city’s highly touted selection process.

Harvest announced earlier this week plans to divest from California and sell most of its business assets in the state to High Times. It is not known if the Pasadena business is included in the sale.

City officials said they are looking into the transaction to get more information.

A Conditional Use Permit in Pasadena to sell cannabis could be worth millions. If High Times, does buy the Pasadena business and move into the Pasadena Avenue storefront where Harvest applied to do business, the company could get Harvest CUP — but most likely officials at City Hall would still perform some type of review on High Times and its executives.

“Generally, if you buy a business with a CUP, the CUP goes with the business location,” said Planning Director David Reyes. “But that is not necessarily the case with a new cannabis permit which has not been issued. As for Harvest and a cannabis permit, we don’t have all the facts so we will take a look.”

Harvest, Integral, MME Pasadena Retail, Atrium, Tony Fong (Varda) and Sweetflower beat out more than 100 other companies in the city’s selection process for the right to apply for a CUP.

So far only Harvest and Integral have been awarded CUPs. Hearings for MME and Varda did not go forward on Wednesday due to information about MME in the letter, for information on that please see our related story.

In its application, Integral CEO, Armen Yemenidjian said he would oversee all operations in Pasadena and fulfill all community and benefits.
But earlier this month, Yemenidjian resigned to spend more time with his family.

According to Todd, Yemenidjian was the CEO of Integral during the cannabis permit screening process and the CUP application process, and his purported ongoing involvement in the project was, “per the Selection Committee, a basis for its selection of Integral as a ‘top six.'”

“The city should consider and investigate these material changes at Integral/Essence and Harvest also, and must not move forward with any final permitting of any of these applicants until these issues are addressed.