{"id":7882,"date":"2017-11-25T01:35:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-25T01:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com?p=2868546&amp;preview_id=2868546"},"modified":"2017-11-25T01:35:39","modified_gmt":"2017-11-25T01:35:39","slug":"trend-setting-hotelier-the-standard-will-soon-have-marijuana-shop-in-lobby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/trend-setting-hotelier-the-standard-will-soon-have-marijuana-shop-in-lobby\/","title":{"rendered":"Trend-setting hotelier The Standard will soon have marijuana shop in lobby"},"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\/trend-setting-hotelier-the-standard-will-soon-have-marijuana-shop-in-lobby\/\" 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 class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-10 large-centered small-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta-date\">Published: Nov 24, 2017, 5:30 pm \u2022 Updated: Nov 24, 2017, 5:30 pm<span class=\"single-comments-link\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <strong>Adam Tschorn<\/strong>, <em> Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/p>\n<p>LOS ANGELES \u2014 Boutique hotel group Standard International and cannabis-infused confection maker Lord Jones have announced a partnership that includes opening a retail shop in the lobby of the Standard Hollywood early next year.<\/p>\n<p>There are also plans to create co-branded THC-derived products and expand to the hotel\u2019s downtown Los Angeles location \u2014 and beyond \u2014 as regulations permit.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Rosenheck, founder and chief executive of L.A.-based Lord Jones, said the 2-year-old brand\u2019s first retail flagship will take up about 300 square feet facing Sunset Boulevard just to the right of the hotel\u2019s main entrance.<\/p>\n<p>It will be stocked with the company\u2019s full range of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2016\/12\/28\/16-biggest-marijuana-trends-defined-2016\/69697\/\">THC-derived edibles<\/a> (gourmet gumdrops, caramels and chews) and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/03\/10\/marijuana-drug-test-cbd-cannabidiol-positive\/74014\/\">topicals<\/a> (some of which contain THC, others made with hemp-derived CBD), along with what he describes as \u201ca very tightly curated assortment of best-in-class products \u2014 including smokable product\u201d by other brands.<\/p>\n<p>There are still some complications to sort out. Marijuana is illegal under federal law, and although California voters legalized adult recreational use a year ago, state and local laws pertaining to sales of THC-containing products are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/11\/20\/california-marijuana-recreational-start-timeline\/92655\/\">still in the process of being formulated<\/a> and won\u2019t be in place until next year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCalifornia has a dual-licensing program,\u201d Rosenheck said, \u201cwhich means you need to have a local license as a prerequisite for applying for a state license, and you need both to operate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He explained that with neither the West Hollywood nor California regulations in place, negotiating the permitting and licensing process required to open the boutique sometime in early 2018 was akin to \u201csort of building the airplane on the runway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The handful of Standard hotels \u2014 there are two in New York and one in Miami in addition to the two SoCal locations \u2014 have a long history of forging quirky, trail-blazing partnerships.<\/p>\n<p>In 2013, the Standard Hollywood \u2014 which is actually located in West Hollywood \u2014 became home to the first West Coast bricks-and-mortar outpost for online eyewear purveyor Warby Parker; the next year, SPiN LA, Susan Sarandon\u2019s table-tennis-meets-social-club concept, bowed at the downtown location. The group was also on the forefront of adding Peloton stationary bikes to its gym-equipment lineup.<\/p>\n<p>Standard International\u2019s chief executive and managing partner, Amar Lalvani, sees putting Lord in the lobby in keeping with that tradition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe love the idea of connecting with people at the early stages (of their businesses), finding fun, interesting dynamic concepts and (allowing) them to come to life in physical locations at our hotels,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Even with so many regulatory hurdles left to clear \u2014 and an opening date at least 45 days in the future (if not more) \u2014 Lord Jones and Standard International had a strategic reason to make the partnership public now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been working on this for over a year,\u201d Rosenheck said, \u201cand we wanted to make the announcement first \u2014 to our knowledge this will be the first hotel-based dispensary in the nation.\u201d (Rosenheck prefers the term \u201cdispensary,\u201d though it\u2019s usually used to refer to pot shops that cater to medical marijuana patients.)<\/p>\n<p>Although there are already \u201cbud and breakfasts\u201d and hotels that allow cannabis consumption, \u201cthere\u2019s nothing on the scale of what the Standard and Lord Jones are trying to do,\u201d said Cynthia Salarizadeh, publisher of the Cannabis Trend Report and Cannabis Brand Report. She added that it almost certainly won\u2019t be the last, either.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re running a hotel and it\u2019s a great brand and you see the Standard killing it like this, you\u2019re likely to follow the concept quickly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a great way to take cannabis to the next level of luxury branding. The Standard is such a familiar and high-end establishment in L.A. and Lord Jones is one of the better-branded products, that I think this collaboration speaks to what the California market is eventually going to become as the regulations unfold.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That those regulations are still taking shape doesn\u2019t concern the Standard\u2019s Lalvani, nor do the potential legal ramifications.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re doing everything we need to do to be compliant in any way with whatever the regulations are,\u201d Lalvani said. \u201cBut the cannabis details will fall to (Lord Jones).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Businesswise, the partnership is structured as a lease in the Standard Hotel. Lalvani said the hotel would not be involved in things like collecting money or credit-card processing (due to federal regulations, banking remains a challenge for cannabis concerns).<\/p>\n<p>Rosenheck and Lalvani said that they\u2019re also working on opening a similar space inside the downtown L.A. Standard on Flower Street, but they expect the process <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/10\/10\/los-angeles-cannabis-regulations-shut-down-businesses\/89728\/\">in the city of L.A.<\/a> to take longer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe light is not quite as bright at the end of the tunnel in Los Angeles,\u201d Rosenheck said. \u201cWest Hollywood\u2019s much further along in (drafting) their ordinance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Positioned at the premium end of the market, Lord Jones\u2019 edibles include $5 individually wrapped chews bursting with dark chocolate and espresso flavor \u2014 and 15 milligrams of THC each \u2014 and limited-edition small-batch gumdrops inspired by the flavors of foraged Icelandic berries, packed with 20 milligrams of THC each. The gumdrops are packaged nine to an elegant turquoise box and created in collaboration with Icelandic band Sigur Ros; the boxes cost $50 each.<\/p>\n<p>Topicals in formulations from pure hemp-derived CBD to CBD\/THC blends are priced from $40 to $60.<\/p>\n<p><em>Information from: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\">Los Angeles Times<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .row --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Hotel group Standard International is partnering with weed edibles maker Lord Jones to open a shop within its boutique hotel in Hollywood, with plans to expand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5062,45,330,7404,6813,499,77,5577,5667,6858,9,6833,5019,1,3,18,2035,61,1736],"tags":[5063,2628,2908,7405,6818,3073,2655,5580,5673,6860,6835,5022,2622,4603],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7882"}],"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=7882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}