Company that operates medical marijuana businesses in Bethesda, Silver Spring to receive license to grow cannabis
Green Thumb Industries, which operates the RISE Bethesda and Silver Spring medical marijuana stores, has received a pre-approval from the state for a new license to grow marijuana in Maryland. The company had filed a lawsuit against the state after it was passed over for a grow license due to the state government’s desire to provide geographical diversity among growers. The Chicago-based company was passed over for the license even though it was ranked higher by a state review panel working to launch the industry in Maryland than some of the 15 other companies that received licenses, according to The Baltimore Sun.
The company was pre-approved for a grow license after the state’s General Assembly approved a bill to issue seven new cannabis-growing and 13 new cannabis-processing licenses. The bill was aimed at enabling minority-owned businesses to have a better shot at opening a medical marijuana business after no African-American-owned firms were among those picked to grow the drug.
Two of the new licenses were set aside by lawmakers to settle the legal dispute brought by Green Thumb Industries and another medical marijuana seller who challenged the licenses’ allocation.
The company has not determined where it will locate its new grow facility.
Purple Line beginning to spur office growth from Bethesda to New Carrollton
The College Park area near one of the planned Purple Line stations is seeing an influx of office development in advance of the light-rail line’s scheduled 2022 arrival. WeWork, the flexible office space rental company, said it specifically chose College Park for one of its new locations because of the proximity to the future light-rail line, according to BisNow.
Corporate Office Properties Trust is developing a 75,000-square-foot office building—College Park’s first “spec” office project in two decades—near the planned location of a Purple Line station. Spec office buildings are built without a buyer or specific tenants already lined up. However, the building is 80 percent leased, according to the business publication.
Other buildings also are going up along the route—including a 2.7-million-square-foot development near the planned New Carrollton Purple Line stop and major new buildings under construction in downtown Bethesda such as Carr Properties’ Apex redevelopment and JBG Smith’s new Bethesda Avenue office building.
Women continue to make less than male counterparts in Maryland, new study finds
A study released Monday by the National Partnership for Women and Families determined the average female employee in Maryland makes about $10,074 less per year working full time compared to the average male employee.
The study, which relied on U.S. Census Bureau data, also found that Latina working women were paid $37,971 less than men annually in Maryland, while black women received on average $22,054 less per year than men in the state.
Nationally, the analysis found a woman employed full time is paid about 80 cents for every dollar paid to a man working full time—or about $10,086 less per year, a figure slightly above the rate in Maryland.