Columbia Care Completes Medicine Man Dispensary Purchase

Columbia Care now owns 25 marijuana stores in Colorado.

November 2, 2021

Medicine Man's four dispensaries in Colorado are under new ownerhsip. Scott Lentz

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Columbia Care Inc., a publicly traded marijuana corporation based in New York, has completed a transaction to buy Medicine Man dispensaries in Colorado.

The acquisition package, announced in June, is valued at $42 million, according to the two parties, with $8.4 million paid in cash and the remaining $33.6 million in Columbia Care stock; 2021 performance milestones could increase the compensation.

Medicine Man, which has a network of four stores in Aurora, Denver, Longmont and Thornton, as well as a 32,000-square-foot growing operation in the Denver area, was founded in 2009 as a Denver medical marijuana dispensary by the brother-sister trio of Andy Williams, Pete Williams and Sally Vander Veer.

“This marks the next step in the evolution of Medicine Man, from an ambitious family-run company to part of a best-in-class operation," Vander Veer says in a statement. "Our focus now turns to executing their vision and bringing as much value as possible to the Columbia Care operation."

According to Vander Veer, she will continue in the role of Medicine Man CEO for at least a year, and the Medicine Man staff will be retained. Medicine Man's branding will remain at the chain's dispensaries.

Medicine Man originally accepted a purchase offer from Schwazze (formerly Medicine Man Technologies), a cannabis conglomerate co-founded by Andy Williams, but terminated that agreement in August 2020. Williams subsequently said that he supported the Columbia Care acquisition, while Vander Veer called the Schwazze deal termination a "blessing in disguise," but declined to give specifics on how that deal fell apart.

Medicine Man is the second Colorado dispensary chain to come under the Columbia Care umbrella. Last year, Columbia Care bought the Green Solution, one of Colorado's largest dispensary chains and vertically integrated pot businesses, in a $140 million deal. Columbia Care now owns 25 marijuana stores in Colorado, and around seventy dispensaries across thirteen states.

“As the second-largest cannabis market in the world, Colorado has become a global bellwether for adult use programs and continues to show strong organic growth," Columbia Care CEO Nicholas Vita says in a statement. "The acquisition of Medicine Man enhances our position as the leader in the state by combining with a recognized operator that has been a consistent outperformer in the Colorado market since its founding."

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Thomas Mitchell has been the news editor of Westword since February 2024. He's been with the publication since 2017 and was formerly its cannabis editor. He’s earned numerous awards and accolades for his work, including placing second for the Marijuana Enterprise Reporting Award from the Colorado Society of Professional Journalists in 2018; being named a Top Cannabis Journalist by Leafbuyer in 2020; and placing first for the College Sports Writing Award from the Arizona Press Club in 2014. His prior work experience includes Arizona Republic, Inman News and Fox Sports.

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