Fall River marijuana dispensary sold for second time in four years

FALL RIVER — Despite its doors remaining closed to the public, a local marijuana dispensary that has been in development for the last four years has been sold for the second time.

Local founders Dr. Henry Crowley and Steven Pimental had started CannaTech Medicinals in 2015 with the intention of opening one of Fall River’s first medical marijuana dispensaries. The pair signed a host community agreement with Mayor Jasiel Correia in 2016 and construction began on a Hartwell Street dispensary and a processing facility in the city’s biopark.

Crowley and Pimental then sold their interest in the company to the Toronto-based MPX Bioceuticals in 2017. The dispensary was then renamed to Health for Life Massachusetts. Despite construction on the dispensary being completed, the facility never opened.

Upon being asked when the dispensary might open, MPX International Corporation CFO David McLaren said Monday that his company is no longer involved with the planned Fall River dispensary.

In an email to The Herald News Monday, McLaren wrote, “We sold the MPX Bioceutical US-Assets to iAnthus Capital Holdings on Feb. 5, 2019, including the Fall River asset.”

Representatives of iAnthus Capital Holdings did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.

According to the New York-based company’s website, iAnthus is seeking to “create the most valuable network of cannabis operations and distribution on a national scale.” Thus far, that network includes facilities in Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California.

iAnthus was also among the first companies approved for sales in New York City. When it opened in 2018, its Brooklyn location was one of only three stores open in a borough populated by 2.6 million people.

iAnthus was one of the first applicants permitted to start selling marijuana in Boston. Mayflower Medicinals, which iAnthus owns, has a dispensary in Boston’s Allston neighborhood with additional dispensaries expected to open in Worcester and Lowell in late 2019 and early 2020, respectively.

According to the company’s website, iAnthus is building a 41,000-square-foot facility which will accommodate a fully integrated license to cultivate, produce and dispense marijuana on a 12-acre property in Fall River. While the website makes no mention of CannaTech or Health For Life Massachusetts, the biopark cultivation facility Crowley and Pimental were developing was located on a 12-acre parcel.

The dispensary appeared under the name CannaTech Medicinals on one of the Cannabis Control Commission’s recent meeting agendas. The company went before the CCC July 17 to request the commission renew its approval of Cannatech’s “vertically integrated medical marijuana treatment center.” The renewal was granted by the CCC.

 When construction was ongoing at the dispensary, Crowley said the facility would be capable of producing pharmaceutical-grade marijuana buds, oils, tinctures and extracts on site. As the dispensary has changed hands, Fall River has seen multiple other business apply for and be approved to operate dispensaries. One recreational and two medical dispensaries have already begun sales. Several others have been granted provisional approval from the state and are awaiting final licensing.