NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Page 2A
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Pot stores find that strength in numbers a big thing
Retailers
consolidate as
a new industry
evolves
By EDWARD STRATTON
EO Media Group
Signs for Mr. Nice Guy,
an ode to the 1998 stoner
comedy “Half Baked,”
recently began popping up
in Astoria.
The marijuana retailer
has merged with a sis-
ter company, Hi Cascade,
absorbing its location at the
foot of the South Slope. Mr.
Nice Guy will open another
store next month on Bond
Street downtown.
The new addition to
Astoria’s growing number
of marijuana stores is also
part of a trend toward con-
solidation, as many shops
try to weather a weak mar-
ket, sometimes taking on
outside investment capital.
Will Wiedenmann, an
assistant director of oper-
ations with Mr. Nice Guy,
said the two companies’
ownership felt they needed
to make a universal brand
behind Mr. Nice Guy. The
company now has 16 loca-
tions in Oregon, including
former Hi Cascades.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Dallas Matuszek fills an order for a customer at Sweet Relief in Astoria.
“Strength in numbers is
a big thing,” Wiedenmann
said.
Five Zero Trees, a Port-
land-based retailer that
recently opened stores in
Cannon Beach and Asto-
ria, has six locations on the
North Coast and around
Portland. Sweet Relief
has five locations on the
North Coast and inland to
Columbia County. Canna-
bis Nation, with a location
in Seaside, has four stores
around the state.
Marijuana stores have
faced increasingly tight
margins since overpro-
duction after the drug was
legalized in Oregon led to
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
Milder with clouds
and sun
Times of clouds
and sun
Partly sunny and
chilly
Mostly sunny and
chilly
Sunshine and
patchy clouds
53° 39°
48° 33°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
43° 27°
43° 26°
44° 27°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
54° 40°
50° 32°
46° 28°
43° 27°
OREGON FORECAST
44° 26°
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
55/50
49/36
52/30
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
51/40
Lewiston
54/44
52/39
Astoria
56/46
Pullman
Yakima 47/36
54/46
51/38
Portland
Hermiston
55/43
The Dalles 54/40
Salem
Corvallis
57/37
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
53/35
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
57/37
57/31
57/35
Ontario
51/27
Caldwell
Burns
49°
32°
51°
33°
69° (2001) 6° (1978)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
56/37
0.00"
0.01"
0.53"
6.46"
8.15"
7.81"
WINDS (in mph)
51/27
53/14
0.00"
0.10"
0.60"
8.25"
14.27"
10.59"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 51/32
57/40
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
53/39
53/41
50°
26°
50°
33°
72° (1953) -4° (1955)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
55/46
Aberdeen
42/34
44/36
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
55/50
Today
Medford
64/34
Fri.
SW 4-8
W 4-8
Boardman
Pendleton
NNE 4-8
NW 6-12
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
57/22
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2018
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:54 a.m.
4:24 p.m.
1:17 p.m.
11:33 p.m.
First
Full
Last
New
Nov 15
Nov 22
Nov 29
Dec 6
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 91° in Immokalee, Fla. Low -8° in West Yellowstone, Mont.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
ice
50s
cold front
— Founded Oct. 16, 1875 —
211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211
333 E. Main St., Hermiston 541-567-6211
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Copyright © 2018, EO Media Group
60s
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
A months-long effort to fashion a new
ferry service across the Columbia River
in Portland comes into public view on
Friday before the Oregon Transportation
Commission.
The ambitious plan to ferry hundreds
of people between Vancouver and Port-
land has been encouraged by Gov. Kate
Brown, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and
other leaders.
The force behind the plan is a company
called Frog Ferry.
Its founder and president is Susan Blad-
holm, a marketing executive with prior
public sector experience at the Port of Port-
land and in public economic development
agencies in Oregon. She also co-founded
Cycle Oregon, the popular bicycle ride.
Bladholm said her company has been
developing its plan for a year and a half.
She wasn’t ready in an interview to reveal
the full details, saying such a disclosure
could jeopardize efforts to round up help
from government agencies to make the
plan work.
Frog Ferry’s idea is to deploy passenger
ferry service in three stages. The first stage
would mean round-trip service between
Vancouver and Portland from stops on the
Columbia and Willamette rivers.
A one-way trip would take about 40
minutes.
The ferries, which could each carry 149
passengers, would have bicycle storage but
wouldn’t carry cars.
Frog Ferry says the ferries could carry
nearly 600 people during commute times,
taking 500 vehicles off the congested
Interstate 5 span between Washington and
Oregon.
More ferry stops would be added over
the next two stages with service extending
up the Columbia Gorge.
The ferry service would be an answer
to growing traffic congestion in the Port-
land metro area that is clogging free-
ways, extending commutes and costing
businesses.
Such congestion cost Portland com-
muters $1.76 billion in time and fuel in
2014, according to a 2015 analysis by the
Transportation Institute at Texas A&M
University.
Brown believes the Frog Ferry pro-
posal is “the most organized effort to date”
to turn to the rivers for relieving “unprec-
edented levels” of congestion, according
to Nikki Fisher, a spokeswoman for the
governor.
She said the governor thinks “our water-
ways are an untapped resource to increase
mobility.”
The depth of the support was revealed
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Circulation Manager:
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on investors, Whitney said.
The process was made eas-
ier by the state Legisla-
ture in 2016 rolling back
requirements that more
than half of a marijuana
store be owned by an Ore-
gon resident.
Now out-of-state inves-
tors can contribute as much
as they want to Oregon can-
nabis businesses, bankroll-
ing new franchises. One of
the most notable examples
is Portland-based chain
Chalice, which has taken
on millions from Cana-
dian investment firms to
open new franchises across
the western U.S. and Can-
ada, according to Willa-
mette Week. More than 1 in
5 of the state’s dispensaries
belong to a chain, the news-
paper reported.
“Investors are coming
in,” Whitney said. “They
see an opportunity. They
are seeing a certain level of
distress in the market. That
distress is allowing them to
buy high-value properties at
a discount. They see this as
an arbitrage opportunity.”
Another reason for the
rush of outside capital is
that marijuana business
owners can’t access tradi-
tional financing, such as
loans, because of federal
prohibition, Whitney said.
Brown, Wheeler support river
ferries to relieve I-5 congestion
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a sharp decline in prices.
Having more places to sell
allows retail chains to buy
at a larger scale for a lower
price, said Beau Whitney,
a cannabis economist with
New Frontier Data.
“That creates a pricing
differential relative to the
smaller mom and pops that
don’t have the purchasing
power,” he said. “To me,
this is a natural evolution of
the market. It’s starting to
increase now lately.”
It seemed like Oregon
was reaching saturation
when it recorded nearly 600
dispensaries, Whitney said.
But the state had focused on
getting more licensees and
offering lower entry fees to
help take consumers away
from the illicit market.
“In retrospect, when
you think about it, hav-
ing unlimited licenses in
a closed environment ... at
some point there was natu-
rally going to be a consoli-
dation in the marketplace,”
Whitney said.
State regulators in June
placed a moratorium on
new licensees until they can
work through the backlog
of applicants seeking entry
into the marijuana indus-
try. That backlog is exacer-
bated by companies chang-
ing ownership as they take
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in letters Frog Ferry submitted to the state
ahead of Friday’s meeting of the state
Transportation Commission.
“Transit remains a critical priority for
our region, and I appreciate you working
with the Portland Bureau of Transporta-
tion, the Bureau of Planning and Sustain-
ability, the Office of the Harbormaster, and
my office to pursue a Portland-area river
taxi service,” Wheeler wrote in a Jan. 12
letter to Bladholm.
Curtis Robinhold, executive director of
the Port of Portland, addressed Frog Fer-
ry’s proposal in a Feb. 9 letter to Bladholm.
“I support the Frog Ferry initiative as a
public-private partnership, and wish you
well in leveraging local, state and federal
funding sources, as well as private sec-
tor investors to aggregate resources and
improve the traffic situation,” Robinhold
wrote. “Best of luck to you as the initiative
moves forward.”
Bladholm approached Matt Garrett,
director of the state Transportation Depart-
ment, six months ago about appearing
before the state commission, according to
Tom Fuller, agency spokesman. He said
Garrett has taken no position on the plan.
“I think the commission is just inter-
ested in hearing information and ideas
around ferry service and we’ll just have
to see whether anything comes of it after
that,” Fuller said.
Commission Chair Tammy Baney said
she didn’t expect any decision at Friday’s
meeting.
The commission “is charged with ensur-
ing a safe and efficient transportation sys-
tem. This concept is one that we want to
know more about,” she wrote in an email to
the Oregon Capital Bureau. “Susan Blad-
holm, of the Frog Ferry, has been working
with ODOT on feasibility. It makes sense
for us to be informed.”
In an interview Monday, Bladholm
couldn’t estimate the cost of the river ferry
service but said her company would seek
public and private funding to launch the
service.
Corrections
The Nov. 14 “Aiming to recapture
commuters” misstated Pendleton Trian-
gle’s address and how many more units
would be developed. The address is 289
S.W. 28th Drive, and there are 13 more
units expected to be completed.
The Nov. 13 article “Company pro-
vides cutting-edge bovine IVF treat-
ments” incorrectly stated when Luciano
and Alina Bonilla worked for Wheat-
sheaf Group. They worked for a different
biotech company in Wisconsin before
moving to Hermiston.
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