Illinois Gives Final Approval for Curaleaf Takeover of Grassroots

Illinois regulators last week gave final approval for Curaleaf’s $830 million acquisition of Grassroots, the Chicago Tribune reports. The deal will see the Massachusetts-based firm takeover nine Greenhouse and Windy City Cannabis dispensaries – which will transition to the Curaleaf brand – by April 1.

Currently, Curaleaf operates 101 retail and medical dispensaries, 23 cultivation sites, and more than 30 processing facilities, with more than 3,800 employees, throughout 23 U.S. states. The company trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange and reported $653 million in its 2020 earnings report issued earlier this month.

Last year, following the closing of the Grassroots deal, Curaleaf announced it would expand its Select brand into Illinois. At the time, company President Joe Bayern described Illinois as “one of the largest adult-use cannabis markets in the country and one that has worked incredibly hard to address the need for reparation and normalization of our industry.”

In 2020, legalized cannabis sales in Illinois reached $1.03 billion, including $669 million in recreational sales and more than $366 million in medical sales.

Multi-state operators have an outsized role in the Illinois industry, and in January Cresco Labs, also based in Chgicago, became the first company to open 10 dispensaries in the state.

The Greenhouse dispensaries transitioning to the Curaleaf brand are in Northbrook, Skokie, Mokena, Morris, Deerfield and Melrose Park, while the Windy City locations pivoting to the Curaleaf name are in Justice, Worth, and Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.