PharmaCann Closed the Olyphant Grow After the IIPR Handover

Cresco Labs closed a $50 million buy of nine PharmaCann dispensaries on September 2. The Scott Township grow that fed that network had already shut on May 20, cutting 60 jobs.

Chicago-based PharmaCann filed the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry on March 20. The valuable piece of the Pennsylvania business was never the greenhouse on Life Science Drive. It was the storefronts Cresco already had been running.

Sixty Jobs Ended at 111 Life Science Drive

The plant sat at 111 Life Science Drive in the Scott Technology Park in Lackawanna County, near Olyphant. PharmaCann grew medical marijuana there and turned it into medicine inside a 54,000-square-foot building, 31,000 square feet of greenhouse plus 23,000 square feet of industrial space, on an 18-acre lot.

Nathan Fete, the company’s chief manufacturing officer, told township officials the cuts would hit an asset protection investigator, couriers, technicians, managers, a quality assurance specialist, and supply chain staff. Some of those workers belonged to United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 Keystone State. The notice said they had no bumping rights.

PharmaCann bought the land in December 2018 from Scranton Lackawanna Industrial Building Co., the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce’s development arm, and drew a grower permit that year in Phase II of the state medical program. Scott Township signed off on the plans in early 2019. It was the second licensed grow in the county, after Pennsylvania Dispensary Solutions in Scranton.

Attempts to reach PharmaCann for comment around the filing went unanswered. The company, founded in 2014, had already told Colorado the Denver grow would go dark the same day, May 20, with 132 jobs attached to that notice.

Why Did PharmaCann Close the Olyphant Facility?

The grow shut because the landlord took it back. Innovative Industrial Properties, the cannabis real estate trust that bought the site in a 2019 sale-leaseback, settled rent-default suits on February 26 and required PharmaCann to surrender the Pennsylvania premises by May 20, with the New York site on the same deadline and the Ohio site by May 26.

The 2019 lease set annualized base rent at $3,120,000, which is $260,000 a month, plus a 1.5 percent property management fee. That bill was written when Pennsylvania wholesale flower still fetched more than $10 a gram. It was still on the books when the same flower was selling for under $3.

THE IIPR CLOCK ON OLYPHANT

1. August 9, 2019: IIPR’s IIP-PA 4 LLC buys the Scott Township lot and leases it back to PharmaCann Penn Plant LLC through November 8, 2034, with two five-year options.
2. December 2024: IIPR says PharmaCann missed December rent on six of 11 leased properties, a $4.2 million shortfall, and that cross-default language pulled in the rest of the portfolio.
3. February 26, 2026: The parties sign a settlement. PharmaCann agrees to wind down the New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania grows and hand the buildings back.
4. March 13, 2026: Consent orders and stipulations of judgment are fully executed in all three states, giving IIPR possession plus money judgments, reduced by rent already escrowed with the courts.
5. March 20, 2026: PharmaCann files the Pennsylvania WARN notice. The Olyphant grow is set to close on the surrender date.
6. May 20, 2026: Operations end. Sixty people lose their jobs. The lease is deemed terminated once the keys go back.

Pennsylvania courts later released $1.3 million of escrowed rent to IIPR, and Ohio courts released $1.7 million. IIPR had already re-leased three other former PharmaCann grows, a 205,000-square-foot Michigan building in April 2025, a 58,000-square-foot Massachusetts building in November 2025, and a 66,000-square-foot Illinois building in March 2026. Olyphant was the last Pennsylvania piece of that unwind.

A 73% Drop in the Wholesale Flower Price

Pennsylvania’s medical program is large, limited-license, and still medical only. Figures presented to the Medical Marijuana Advisory Board put program metrics as of March 1 at 438,244 active patient certifications, 192 operational dispensaries, 30 operational growers and processors, and 1,920 approved practitioners. Program-to-date sales since the tracking window that starts in January 2020 had reached $9.1 billion. Calendar 2025 sales were $1.80 billion.

That volume did not save the grow. Dry-leaf pricing presented to the same board, running through February 2026, shows wholesale flower falling from $10.65 a gram in early 2021 to $2.85 a gram, a 73 percent drop. Retail dry leaf fell from $14.90 a gram to $7.60, a 49 percent drop. Growers still pay a 5 percent tax on grower receipts when they sell to dispensaries. Patients pay no retail sales tax.

DRY LEAF PRICES IN THE MEDICAL PROGRAM

A grow that owed $260,000 a month could not price through a market that had cut the wholesale gram by nearly three quarters. Dispensaries could still move product. The factory behind them could not cover the rent on the building that made it.

PharmaCann was not the only Pennsylvania operator to blink. Green Leaf Medicals, owned by The Cannabist Company, filed a WARN notice to close a grow and manufacturing site at 11 Horton Way in Saxton, Bedford County, laying off 52 people on April 18, with base pay and benefits through the 60-day notice window.

Cresco Paid $50 Million for Nine Stores

On September 2, Cresco Labs said it had closed the purchase of 100 percent of PharmaCann Penn, LLC for $50 million in cash and a seller note, on a cash-free, debt-free basis. The package is nine operational medical marijuana dispensaries. Cresco had been supporting those stores under a management services agreement since April, which means it was already behind the counter while the Scott Township grow was winding down.

Cresco said the close makes it the largest medical marijuana retailer in Pennsylvania, on top of a position it already claimed as the state’s largest wholesaler. Chief executive Charlie Bachtell framed the buy as more doors in a core market, not a rescue of a failed grow.

We are focused on deploying capital into opportunities that strengthen our competitive position and generate attractive long-term returns. This transaction expands our retail footprint in a core market through a highly strategic acquisition while creating additional opportunities to leverage our existing infrastructure. Pennsylvania is one of our core markets, where scale and vertical integration create durable competitive advantages. Pairing more retail doors with our scaled cultivation and leading wholesale business reinforces our position as the consolidator of choice in the markets that matter most.

Charlie Bachtell, CEO, Cresco Labs news release

Cresco did not buy the Olyphant greenhouse, the grower permit attached to that building, or the IIPR lease. Those went back to the landlord on May 20. The split is the whole story in miniature. In a medical-only market with crushed wholesale prices, a licensed storefront still cleared $50 million. A 54,000-square-foot grow that cost $260,000 a month to rent did not.

Layoffs Hit Michigan, Illinois, and Colorado First

Olyphant was one more line on a WARN ledger that had been filling up for a year and a half. PharmaCann had already posted notices in Michigan, Maryland, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Colorado. In December it agreed to sell 17 Colorado LivWell retail stores, plus inventory and intellectual property, to Vireo Growth for $49 million in stock. In February it merged with Colorado-based LivWell Enlightened Health, a combination that did not save the Denver grow or the Pennsylvania plant.

PHARMACANN WARN COUNTS SINCE JANUARY 2025

Colin Ferrian, a cannabis portfolio manager, wrote in December 2024 that PharmaCann’s missed rent at IIPR was either a play for better terms or a sign the operator was out of cash. The later record, a 37 percent rent cut that did not hold, then a three-state surrender, then a $50 million sale of the Pennsylvania stores, reads as the cash reading. The stores found a buyer. The grows found a landlord with a judgment.

Who Owns the Scott Township Building Now?

IIPR does. The settlement says the lease ends when PharmaCann vacates. IIPR’s June 30 portfolio supplement still listed the Olyphant site under PharmaCann, and the trust has said it is working to retenant the three properties it took back and to move licenses to new operators. No new Scott Township tenant has been named.

Bob Durkin, president and CEO of the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce and executive vice president of SLIBCO, had treated PharmaCann as an anchor for a park built around smaller life-science users. He said he was sorry to see it go and not shocked, given the merger-and-sale traffic around the company.

We always hate to lose anybody, especially somebody who’s been with us for a long period of time.

Bob Durkin, president and CEO, Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce

Scott Township Supervisor Chairman Mike Giannetta called PharmaCann a quiet tenant. Nobody complained about them, he said, and he hoped another user would take the building. As of IIPR’s June 30 ledger, that user had not been announced. The 60 people named in the WARN notice were already gone.

No Adult-Use Sales in the 2026 Budget

Pennsylvania still has no adult-use market. Legalization was left out of the state budget signed July 12, after earlier bills died in a split legislature. Home grow remains illegal for everyone, including registered patients. The medical program keeps posting sales, $1.80 billion in 2025, while the factories that fill the jars keep getting smaller.

WHAT STILL HOLDS IN PENNSYLVANIA

• Medical only: Adult-use sales are not legal, and the July 12 budget did not add them.
• No home grow: Cultivating even one plant is a criminal offense for patients and non-patients alike.
• Limited licenses: The Medical Marijuana Act caps growers and processors; 30 were operational as of March 1.
• Thin tax, hard wholesale: Growers pay 5 percent on sales to dispensaries, and the wholesale gram is $2.85.

Cresco is now the retailer of record on nine former PharmaCann doors and says the deal adds to revenue, margins, and cash flow right away. IIPR is shopping a new operator for a purpose-built grow in a park that was sold as life science. The 60 people who clocked in on Life Science Drive are the party with no remaining claim on either side of that trade.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Cresco Labs Buy the Olyphant Grow Facility?

No. Cresco bought 100 percent of PharmaCann Penn, LLC, a package of nine retail dispensaries, and had already been running those stores under a management services agreement since April. The greenhouse at 111 Life Science Drive went back to Innovative Industrial Properties under the February 26 settlement, on the same May 20 date as the New York surrender, and was not part of the $50 million close.

What Does a WARN Notice Require in a Plant Closing?

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires 60 days’ written notice before a covered plant closing or mass layoff, which is why PharmaCann’s March 20 filing lined up with a May 20 shutdown. Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor and Industry receives those notices and can point displaced workers toward retraining funds. The Olyphant notice also told the township there were no bumping rights, so seniority could not move someone into a surviving job at that site.

Can Pennsylvania Medical Patients Grow Their Own Cannabis?

They cannot. Home cultivation is banned for registered patients and for everyone else, and growing a single plant is a criminal offense. Bills to allow patient home grow have been introduced and have not become law, so the only legal flower in the state still moves through permitted growers and the 192 dispensaries counted on March 1.

When Does the Original IIPR Lease on the Olyphant Site Expire?

The initial term ran to November 8, 2034, with two options of five years each, under the August 9, 2019 sale-leaseback. That term is now academic. The February 26 settlement says the lease is deemed terminated once PharmaCann vacates, so IIPR takes the building free of that 15-year clock and can re-lease it to a new operator if a cannabis license can be moved or a non-cannabis tenant can use the shell.

IIPR still needs a named tenant for the Scott Township shell. Cresco already has the nine doors. The 60 jobs attached to the grow ended on May 20, on the day the keys were due back.