A medical cannabis growing facility in Scott Twp. is closing next month.<\/p>\n
PharmaCann Inc. is shuttering the facility in the Scott Technology Park on May 20, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the state Department of Labor and Industry last month. The act requires employers to give a 60-day notice before closing plants or conducting mass layoffs.<\/p>\n
The closure will result in 60 employees at the facility at 111 Life Science Drive losing their jobs, according to the notice. Affected employees include an asset protection investigator, couriers, technicians, managers, a quality assurance specialist and supply chain employees, according to a letter from Nathan Fete, the company\u2019s chief manufacturing officer, to township officials.<\/p>\n
It is unclear why the facility is closing, and attempts to reach PharmaCann for comment were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
PharmaCann, which states on its website it is one of the country\u2019s largest cannabis products producers, recently settled a lawsuit with Innovative Industrial Properties related to lease defaults. Under the settlement, the company is required to turn over its properties in Pennsylvania and New York by May 20.<\/p>\n
The company, which was founded in 2014, grows marijuana plants and converts them into medicine in the 54,000-square-foot facility.\n<\/p>\n
The company purchased its 18-acre site from Scranton Lackawanna Industrial Building Co., the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce\u2019s development arm, in 2018 and received a grower permit from the state Department of Health for the facility that same year as part of Phase II of the state\u2019s Medical Marijuana Program. Scott Twp. officials approved the plans in early 2019.\n<\/p>\n
PharmaCann was the second company in Lackawanna County to grow marijuana plants \u2014 the first being Pennsylvania Dispensary Solutions in Scranton.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Bob Durkin, president and CEO of the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce and executive vice president of SLIBCO, said PharmaCann, which has had a presence at the Scott Technology Park since its founding, has been an anchor for the park, embodying the type of business he envisions operating there, which are focused mainly on research and development, and life sciences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe story of PharmaCann and its history up there is really the story of the concept of the park, which is somewhat smaller operations, but all doing unique \u2026 oftentimes R&D-type work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Durkin said while he\u2019s sorry to see it close, he isn\u2019t surprised given the current business environment of mergers and acquisitions. PharmaCann announced in February it merged with Colorado-based LivWell Enlightened Health.<\/p>\n
He said companies like PharmaCann help the community by hiring people locally and creating jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always hate to lose anybody, especially somebody who\u2019s been with us for a long period of time. But, you know, the state does a very good job under the WARN program of helping individuals identify where other job opportunities are, where, you know, retraining dollars can be brought to businesses that may bring these folks on,\u201d he said, adding the chamber will work to get the word out to the community that the PharmaCann employees will be available for hire.<\/p>\n
The notice states there are no bumping rights for the affected employees, some of whom are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 Keystone State, which was notified about the closure.<\/p>\n
The company has also filed notices this year about employee layoffs in Michigan, Maryland, Massachusetts, Illinois and Colorado, according to Cannabis Business Times.<\/p>\n
Scott Twp. Supervisor Chairman Mike Giannetta said the company is a quiet tenant in the park, with no issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody ever complained about them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While Giannetta said he was surprised PharmaCann is closing, he is hopeful a new tenant will move into the building PharmaCann operates.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a nice building up there and hopefully something else will move in up there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A medical cannabis growing facility in Scott Twp. is closing next month. PharmaCann Inc. is shuttering the facility…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[60,201,182,139,28,3103,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-161775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-business","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scott-township","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}