Three more cannabis businesses, all spin-offs of Change Inc. President Derrick Gibbs’ Budr Cannabis brand, had their social equity status approved by the state last week, adding to the growing number of adult-use dispensaries that are hoping to open across the state this year.
The Connecticut Social Equity Council (SEC) last week approved social equity status for three equity joint venture cannabis dispensaries for Budr Hartford Holding LLC, doing business as Budr Cannabis.
An equity joint venture is a business in which a social equity applicant partners with an existing medical cannabis retailer or cultivator to open a new entity. That new business must be majority owned by the social equity applicant. For Budr Cannabis, Gibbs and his team of social equity applicants are partnering with Chicago-based multistate operator Green Thumb Industries (GTI), which owns West Haven cannabis cultivation facility Advanced Grow Labs and two Connecticut dispensaries.
The council also voted to accept accounting firm CohnReznick’s recommendation to approve four workforce development plans: one for Budr Cannabis; one for Connecticut Social Equity LLC; one for Curaleaf Groton LLC and one for Green Cab Co LLC.
A business social equity plan — a required document outlining social equity-related goals for a cannabis business — was also approved by the SEC last week for MCEJV LLC, an upcoming micro-cultivator based in Portland.
