Operator of medical marijuana dispensary plans to move from Lake Success to Manhasset

After nearly two years and a change in ownership, the operators of Nassau County’s sole medical marijuana dispensary are planning to move from Lake Success to Manhasset.

MedMen will stay in North Hempstead Town but has applied to move from a medical office complex at 2001 Marcus Ave. to a one-story, 6,396-square-foot building at 1575 Northern Blvd. The dispensary will remain open for business until the new location is ready, said Daniel Yi, a senior vice president at MedMen.

“We are always looking to provide a better retail experience for our patients and customers,” Yi said Thursday. “We feel the new locations are better-suited for our goals of mainstreaming marijuana,” he added, referring also to a location on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan that opened in April.

Staten Island-based Bloomfield Industries Inc. was one of the first five companies authorized by the New York State Department of Health to sell medical marijuana. Bloomfield opened the Lake Success dispensary in January 2016, before it was bought by California-based MedMen the following year.

Two months ago, MedMen applied with the town for a building permit and has proposed interior alterations at the Manhasset location, which is currently a Sleep Number retail store.

There are 16 proposed parking spots for the dispensary, according to the application obtained by Newsday.

Town spokeswoman Carole Trottere said an omission letter was issued by the town Building Department, to which MedMen has responded. The letter specified that the application was missing components, but Trottere did not respond to a request for further details.

An expansion of the state medical marijuana program will add 20 new dispensaries around the state, bringing the total to three locations each in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The dispensary in Riverhead is operated by New York-based Columbia Care NY LLC.

One of the new Nassau dispensaries will be coming to Carle Place, also in North Hempstead Town.

Massachusetts-based CuraLeaf, formerly known as PalliaTech, is renovating a 3,000-square-foot former medical office at 255 Glen Cove Rd. The company first submitted an application for a building permit on Dec. 21, 2017. A permit has since been secured and the company expects the dispensary to open in a couple of months, a spokesman said. Trottere said construction is in the early stages.

Fiorello Pharmaceuticals, of Manhattan, one of the five additional companies licensed in August 2017 to sell medical marijuana, also plans to open a dispensary in Nassau County. Company officials could not be reached for comment on where in Nassau the dispensary will open.

There are 23 dispensaries open across New York State, according to the Health Department website. As of Sept. 18, more than 72,000 patients were registered with the state program to receive medical marijuana, which requires a doctor’s certification for individuals with eligible illnesses such as cancer and multiple sclerosis.