Hearing Officer Recommends Approval of Cannabis-Friendly Bar and Spa

A proposed cannabis-friendly spa and lounge in Denver received a key endorsement last week while the venue awaits licensing approval.

Pure Elevations Spa and Garden already has a hospitality and micro-sales license with the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED), but it needs a similar permit from the Denver Department of Excise & Licenses before it can open at 185 South Santa Fe Drive. After an August 23 hearing with no public opposition, however, a city hearing officer has recommended that Excise & Licenses issue Pure Elevations the hospitality and sales license.

If approved, Pure Elevations would become Denver's first licensed cannabis-friendly spa. Not only that, it would be Denver's first micro-dispensary allowing cannabis consumption on site.

Excise & Licenses must wait until September 11 for any objections to the hearing officer's recommendation, after which department executive director Molly Duplechian can make her decision. If all goes well, Pure Elevations founder Rebecca Marroquin hopes to be open by spring of next year.

"We're starting to pull permits for construction, but we really don't have much construction to do. Mostly an indoor buildout and some zoning-use permits for work outside," Marroquin explains.

A licensed massage therapist, Marroquin shared her ideas for Pure Elevations with Westword earlier this summer. If they're approved, she plans to install a micro-dispensary, three massage rooms, three salon chairs and a bathtub, as well as a tea and coffee lounge and an outdoor garden. The indoor areas would be for cannabis-infused massages, edibles and refreshments, with smoking and vaping to take place in a fenced outdoor garden kept open year-round thanks to radiant heating.

Visitors to Pure Elevations would have to be at least 21 and would have to purchase any cannabis consumed on the property, just like those at a bar. Per state law, individual purchases would be limited to one gram of flower, .25 grams of concentrate or edibles with no more than ten milligrams of THC, though one customer could make multiple purchases throughout their visit.

According to Marroquin, "nothing has changed" in her plans for Pure Elevations.

"I'm really excited about it. I think the guests will really like the patio out back, too. There will be a zen garden with plants and flowers, and guests will walk down from a wooden ramp with a trellis with vines and flowers," she says. "Past that, there will be an open bar and patio seating with fire pits and everything else."

Pure Elevations would become Colorado's second licensed cannabis bar if the venue opens. (The other is JAD's Mile High Smoke, a cannabis bar that opened just outside of Denver in unincorporated Adams County last year.) However, Marroquin could also join a growing list of businesses that have been approved for hospitality but remain unopened.

Tetra Lounge was approved for pot hospitality last March, but the owner is currently battling with the city over his building plan; he was recently ticketed for allegedly holding unlicensed cannabis events. The Patterson Inn Hotel was also approved for hospitality last March, but hasn't been issued its license yet as it struggles to satisfy the city's indoor ventilation requirements for cannabis smoke. Colorado Cannabis Tours and Cirrus Social Lounge received preliminary approval for cannabis hospitality earlier this year; both businesses are still working on their respective buildings and plan to open later this year, though neither has announced official dates yet.

The Coffee Joint, Denver's lone licensed and open cannabis lounge, only allows vaping indoors, not smoking, and was grandfathered in under a city ordinance that expired in 2017. There are also three newly licensed and operating mobile cannabis lounges in Denver, which operate under similar rules to establishments, but with less strict ventilation requirements.

Still, all of these businesses applied for a bring-your-own-cannabis model of hospitality, and would not be allowed to sell dispensary products.

Like the owners of Colorado Cannabis Tours and Tetra, Marroquin has rejected indoor smoking in favor of an outdoor area in order to avoid the ventilation requirements. This will enable a quicker opening for Pure Elevations, she believes.

Marroquin's massage plans face another key obstacle: Lotions, balms and topicals with THC, an integral part of cannabis massages, are considered infused products by state regulators. This means her massage products can only be sold in .25- or ten-milligram doses at the moment, which she says are far short of the amount needed for a proper massage.

Cannabis skin products aren't intoxicating because they don't enter the bloodstream, so Marroquin hopes to convince the MED to make exceptions or new rules for topicals. She's recently been selected to serve on the MED's Social Equity Program Advisory Work Group, and plans to bring up the issue at her first meeting in September.

The topical rules are more of a speed bump than a stop sign, she adds, and won't stop Pure Elevations from opening as soon as possible if approved.

"This all feels pretty amazing," she concludes. "I feel like I've done so much already, and I can't wait to see it through."