New ownership coming to Roots RX shops valleywide

Roots RX Recreational dispensary is the latest marijuana business in Aspen changing ownership amid the consolidating cannabis industry.

A Salida-based company called Sun Theory Holding Co. is in the process of acquiring six Roots RX dispensaries in the Roaring Fork Valley and elsewhere on the Western Slope.

“We are acquiring the Roots RX portfolio — so that’s Aspen, Basalt, Edwards, Eagle-Vail, Leadville and Gunnison,” Connor Oman, one of Sun Theory’s three principals, told members of Aspen’s Local Licensing Authority at its June 6 meeting. “Additionally, our group owns a shop in Salida, one in Durango and a license in Crested Butte that will be open this year.”

The LLA unanimously approved the ownership change. Dispensaries are required to have both state and local licenses to sell marijuana, and ownership changes require approval.

Oman was not reachable Wednesday; some area Roots RX employees said they did not know if the Aspen store will keep its name or if it will change with the new ownership.

Aspen resident Robert Holmes Jr., one of the Roots RX founders and owners, also could not be reached. Roots RX opened in Aspen in 2015; in 2019, Roots RX agreed to a buyout by a national company, but the deal with Medicine Man Technologies, now known as Schwazze, fell through.

“Generally, we are acquiring 100% of the company,” Oman told the LLA. “Rob is going to maintain involvement in some level. He will have an ownership stake in the Basalt location and will be involved in some yet-to-be-determined advisory capacity.”

Holmes still had ownership in Roots RX locations in Basalt, Gunnison and Leadville as of Wednesday, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue. The Roots RX locations in Aspen, Edwards and Vail are now under the ownership of Sun Theory Holding Co. LLC, according to the revenue department.

“In terms of control, it’s all controlled by Sun Theory Holding Co. and I’m running that and the buck stops with me, so to speak,” Oman told the LLA earlier this month.

Roots RX Aspen is located in the subground space at 400 E. Hyman Ave. and has less than 700 square feet. The store might expand, Oman said.

Examples of more recent changes in local dispensary ownership include the sale of Best Day Ever in August to Denver-based Bespoke Extracts. The downtown store still operates under the Best Day Ever name.

Green Dragon, a chain of marijuana shops, sold to California-based Eaze in 2021. There is a Green Dragon location in downtown Aspen.

Pitkin County currently has 10 licensed recreational dispensaries — seven in Aspen, two in Snowmass Village, one in Basalt.

With marijuana legalization growing into nearby states, Colorado doesn’t have the exclusivity it enjoyed when recreational dispensaries began opening in 2014. In addition to Colorado, marijuana is now fully legal for recreational and medicinal use in New Mexico and Arizona. Cannabis also is available for medicinal use in Utah and Oklahoma, but border states Nebraska and Wyoming still outlaw pot entirely.

Overall marijuana sales in Colorado set a record in 2021 with $2.33 billion, breaking the previous year’s mark of $2.19 billion in sales, according to the revenue department. Annual sales in 2022 declined to $1.77 million.

“As more states opened legal stores, the Centennial State lost some of its allure as a cannabis tourism destination. Consumers in nearby states — New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, Montana — no longer need to travel to experience the thrill of purchasing regulated cannabis. Colorado’s lost customers didn’t necessarily stop buying legal cannabis. They just stopped buying it in Colorado,” noted the 2023 jobs report by Vangst, a national recruiting firm in the marijuana industry.

From January through April, marijuana shops in Pitkin County had generated $4.6 million in sales, according to the state revenue department. Countywide sales totaled $5.4 million during the same period in 2021 and $5.5 million in 2022.

The sales total for April, the most recent month available, was $824,474 in Pitkin County, a sharp drop from $890,959 in April 2022 and $1,049,957 in April 2021.

Inside Aspen city limits, marijuana shops saw sales slide 14% from $11.21 million in 2021 to $9.64 million last year, according to city tax records. The year the pandemic popped, 2020, generated $11.32 million in total sales. Aspen’s top sales year was 2019, with $11,944,810 overall sales.

Snowmass Village gained its first retail marijuana dispensary in December 2019.

Rick Carroll, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer