{"id":10511,"date":"2024-11-06T19:18:10","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T19:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=6830337"},"modified":"2024-11-06T19:18:10","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T19:18:10","slug":"green-dragon-founders-fired-up-to-get-back-to-where-we-were-with-new-joint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/green-dragon-founders-fired-up-to-get-back-to-where-we-were-with-new-joint\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Dragon founders fired up to \u201cget back to where we were\u201d with new joint"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/green-dragon-founders-fired-up-to-get-back-to-where-we-were-with-new-joint\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/green-dragon-founders-fired-up-to-get-back-to-where-we-were-with-new-joint.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The first dispensary chain founded by Alex Levine, Andy Levine and Lisa Leder is preparing to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2024\/10\/28\/green-dragon-closing-dispensary-grow-house-colorado\/\">cease operations in Colorado<\/a>, three years after they sold it.<\/p>\n<p>But they have high expectations for take two \u2014 their new chain, Fired Cannabis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur plan is to get back to where we were,\u201d said Alex Levine. \u201cIt\u2019s just a long detour.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The trio \u2014 Andy Levine and Lisa are married, and Alex is Andy\u2019s son \u2014 opened the inaugural Green Dragon dispensary in 2014, and the cannabis firm was one of Colorado\u2019s biggest when they sold it in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>But things fell apart after that.<\/p>\n<p>Eaze, the California-based cannabis delivery service that bought Green Dragon, fired the trio in early 2023, and they resigned from the board months later. The year since has featured lawsuits, one of which is still pending. And Green Dragon\u2019s CEO told BusinessDen last month that the company\u2019s Denver grow operation and 17 Colorado dispensaries <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2024\/10\/28\/green-dragon-closing-dispensary-grow-house-colorado\/\">will shutter at the end of the year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cQuickly after the merger closed, we realized we didn\u2019t have much of a say,\u201d the younger Levine said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want our expertise at all. They wanted our assets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The trio say they\u2019re now focused on Fired, which has seven stores in the works between Denver and Aurora.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know how to run a lean operation and be profitable,\u201d Leder said.<\/p>\n<p>In May, they took over three licenses from the now-defunct Altitude Dispensaries. In June, they got another four from Lightshade Dispensaries, which still operates four other local stores itself.<\/p>\n<p>They bought two of the buildings \u2014 10455 E. Colfax Ave. in Aurora and 1568 S. Federal Blvd in Denver \u2014 through Leder\u2019s real estate company Best Properties LLC for $2.1 million and $600,000, records show. Fired leases the other five, which are all in Denver.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\"> <\/aside>\n<p>The dispensaries are open, although renovations are underway.<\/p>\n<p>The three Altitude shops are further along because they\u2019ve been working on them since May. One shop in Aurora is basically finished, save a few minor touches, and the other two should be wrapped up in the coming weeks, they said.<\/p>\n<p>They expect the other four to be fully rolling by the end of the year, pending permitting and delivery.<\/p>\n<p>Alex Levine said they are spending tens of thousands at each location, getting rid of waiting rooms and installing new lighting, signs and display cases. The projects are self-funded, he said, largely because weed\u2019s illegal federal status makes it difficult to get organized outside capital.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you could start over, what could you do better?\u201d Levine said. \u201cWe kind of get a clean slate and a fresh start.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That reset starts with product. At Altitude, all the flower was weighed out \u201cdeli-style\u201d and nothing was pre-packaged. Lightshade was doing the opposite. Fired will offer both at all their stores to maximize customer options.<\/p>\n<p>All of Fired\u2019s locations will sell food and drink \u2014 think gas station snacks such as chips and soda \u2014 to keep the munchies at bay, something permitted in Colorado only since May. The store at 12075 E. 40th Ave. in Denver will also feature a drive-thru.<\/p>\n<p>Leder said that weed is a marketable product like anything else, whether it be clothes or furniture or food. Fired, like Green Dragon, aims to squash the dopey-dispensary stereotype.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to come off like a college dorm room,\u201d Levine said.<\/p>\n<p>The pair said Fired is able to offer lower prices to their customers because of their relationships with cultivators, who are getting \u201cstiffed\u201d by some vendors who don\u2019t pay on time, or at all. Leder and Levine said Fired always pays in full and on time, and doesn\u2019t charge producers for specific spots in the store, something both said is a common practice at other dispensaries.<\/p>\n<p>They have also known most of Colorado\u2019s local growers since recreational marijuana went on sale in 2014. Those relationships are not as strong with four of Colorado\u2019s biggest dispensary brands, mainly because they have been bought by large, out-of-state firms \u2014 \u201cBig-Canna,\u201d as Levine likes to call them \u2014 in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>Livwell\u2019s 22 stores were bought by Pharmacann, a firm out of Chicago, in 2022. The Cannabist Company, a publicly traded conglomerate based in New York City, purchased Green Solution\u2019s 23 dispensaries and six grows in 2020, back when it operated as Columbia Care. That same year, Schwazze, another publicly traded company in Denver, acquired 13 Starbuds locations. They recently bought the remaining five they did not own already.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s on top of the tumultuous Green Dragon-Eaze situation over the past three years.<\/p>\n<p>Levine characterized the new versions of the titans as \u201ccold and overly corporatized.\u201d He said they see the marijuana industry as a way to print money and don\u2019t consider the nuances necessary to run a profitable business.<\/p>\n<p>Levine compared growing a cannabis operation to starting a restaurant.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\"> <\/aside>\n<p>\u201cPeople don\u2019t open a restaurant because they think they\u2019re making money,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s because they think they have better recipes than everyone else and can provide a better experience than everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Levine dropped out of Tufts University in 2012, after Colorado voted to make recreational weed legal in Colorado, to start Green Dragon. His mother-in-law Leder, whose background is in real estate, bought various grow and retail shops to bypass landlords that did not want the liability of renting to what, by law, was a criminal enterprise in the eyes of the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>Soon after, the older Levine, who has a background in business, jumped on board too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was very small initially,\u201d Alex Levine said. \u201cAnd it kept growing and growing and became a family affair.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>People have been buying less marijuana in Colorado. Sales peaked in 2021 at $2.2 billion and this year\u2019s numbers sat at $948.5 million through August, according to the state\u2019s department of revenue. If that pace holds the rest of this year, the industry will post its worst figures since 2016.<\/p>\n<p>But Leder and Levine believe the \u201cdoom and gloom\u201d attitude toward the industry is overblown. They still see opportunities, although they noted Fired\u2019s footprint will have to be more thoughtful than Green Dragon\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Denver has issued nearly 300 dispensary licenses. But Aurora has 24 total for its 400,000-person population, the city told BusinessDen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe intention isn\u2019t just to stop with these seven. We want to expand as fast and get as big as we can,\u201d Levine said. \u201cWe\u2019re pretty fired up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/myaccount.denverpost.com\/dp\/preference\">Get more business news by signing up for our Economy Now newsletter.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>The first dispensary chain founded by Alex Levine, Andy Levine and Lisa Leder is preparing to cease operations in Colorado, three years after they sold it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5062,6811,7938,77,6815,9,6882,5019,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[5063,6816,7939,2655,6820,6883,5022],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10511"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}