Perlow first entered the market in 2017 when his company, PurePenn LLC, became one of the first to be granted a permit in Pennsylvania, allowing them to open a growing and processing facility in McKeesport.<\/p>\n
After selling the company in 2020 to multi-state operator Trulieve for an upfront payment of $46 million<\/a>, Perlow and his business partners parlayed their success into new opportunities in other states: Missouri, Ohio, and Illinois, before landing back in their home state.<\/p>\n In 2022, Perlow and his partners started Rooted Management Services. The company offers cannabis businesses a range of services<\/a>, including help with permit applications, facility management, and exit strategy.<\/p>\n Perlow returned to Pennsylvania\u2019s cannabis industry in 2024, when Tri-Mountain Pure hired Rooted Management Services to revitalize a grow facility on Pittsburgh\u2019s North Side. He is listed as a principal, financial backer, and operator for Tri-Mountain Pure on an affiliates list provided by the Department of Health.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took me a round trip to get back to PA,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s good to be back here.\u201d<\/p>\n In February, the facility had its first harvest, Perlow said.<\/p>\n Now, Tri-Mountain Pure plans to open a new medical cannabis dispensary in Pittsburgh\u2019s Strip District under the brand Dark Matter. The store is expected to open in mid to late May, pending regulatory approvals, he said.<\/p>\n Across the state, the medical marijuana program has 30 operational grower-processors and 185 dispensaries, as of November 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n In southwestern Pennsylvania, there are dozens of medical cannabis dispensaries, according to a map<\/a> on the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Program website.<\/p>\n But Perlow\u2019s reintroduction to the Pennsylvania market was serendipitous, and a little lucky, he said.<\/p>\n Before entering the cannabis industry, Perlow worked as an attorney for McKnight Realty Partners, a Pittsburgh-based real estate company.\u00a0<\/p>\n When Pennsylvania created the Medical Marijuana Program<\/a> in 2016 \u2014 legalizing cannabis use for the first time in state history \u2014 he said he saw an opportunity and assembled a group of investors to form PurePenn.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2017, after a competitive application process, the Department of Health granted an initial batch<\/a> of 12 grower-processor permits and 27 dispensary permits. PurePenn was among them. A year later, the state approved an additional 13 grower-processor permits, 23 dispensary permits, and three clinical registrant permits.<\/p>\n In 2023, new legislation<\/a> slightly expanded the potential number of permits available.\u00a0<\/p>\n When Tri-Mountain Pure approached Perlow about managing a cannabis company, they did not have a location or a permit, according to former Tri-Mountain Pure partner Neal DeAngelo.<\/p>\n \u201cWe needed to identify a good operator that can operate the facility,\u201d DeAngelo said. \u201cSo, we went out and did our due diligence, and we were really impressed with Gabe and the Rooted team.\u201d<\/p>\n Perlow said he knew of a grow facility sitting empty on the North Side<\/a>. \u201cSo, it\u2019s just sitting here empty,\u201d Perlow said. \u201cI\u2019m in Pittsburgh. I know this building is empty. We want to get back into the market, but we don\u2019t want to raise $15 million to build a new building. We had to do a little bit of this work, the work here, to get this building back operational.\u201d<\/p>\n But the location already had some built-out canopy space, the space for growing plants, he said. \u201cWe were back in Pennsylvania for almost nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Health notified Tri-Mountain Pure that it approved its grower-processor permit in June 2025 and its dispensary permit in January 2026, according to letters from the department. Each dispensary can have up to three<\/a> separate locations.<\/p>\n The new Dark Matter dispensary will have \u201ca spacey feel to it\u201d and include an enclosed parking lot with a walk-up window, Perlow said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, a lot of people are self-conscious about walking through a dispensary,\u201d he said. \u201cYou pull in, nobody sees you park or walk in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/RENDERING.png\")
Rendering of future dispensary on Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh\u2019s Strip District. Rendered by Citadel Construction Group, submitted by Perlow, principal at Rooted Management Services LLC (Hannah Frances Johansson\/PMP)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PERLOW-INSIDE-BUILDING-2-Large.jpeg\")
Gabe Perlow, principal at Rooted Management Services LLC, walks through enclosed parking lot of future dispensary in Pittsburgh\u2019s Strip District (Hannah Frances Johansson\/PMP)<\/p>\n