SLO County cannabis company is opening 2 new shops — and it’s hiring 100 new workers
A Central Coast cannabis company is planning to open two San Luis Obispo County retail shops after years of planning.
Natural Healing Center, which is owned by Helios Dayspring, aims to open a new Morro Bay retail store in March and a San Luis Obispo store in April, said Joe Armendariz, the company’s government affairs director.
Based in Grover Beach, Natural Healing Center opened a store in Grover Beach in July 2018.
More recently, the business has been making tenant improvements to 495 Morro Bay Blvd. in Morro Bay and 2640 Broad St. in San Luis Obispo.
“We’re hoping to open the SLO business by 4/20,” Armendariz said. “That would be a great marketing date to open on. It takes a while to get a shop up and running, especially given (COVID-19). We are getting closer and there no unforeseen circumstances I’m seeing now that can keep us from moving forward on both new locations.”
Armendariz said that the new Natural Healing Center shops will have a similar look and feel to the company’s Grover Beach store, offering a range of products such as flowers, vapes, concentrates, edibles and drinks.
The business also has a retail location in Lemoore, and it’s planning to open another store in Turlock.
In addition, Natural Healing Center has several cannabis cultivation sites on the Central Coast, including grow sites in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, and the business is pursuing permits to be able to grow in additional areas of San Luis Obispo County.
The company also claims to have “one of the largest cultivation sites in the state in the Central Valley.”
“We’re in a period of a lot of growth with a lot of projects in the pipeline,” Armendariz said, noting that the company is “vertically integrated” and owns or controls its supply, distribution and retail operations. “We plan to add about 100 new jobs this year to add to our 100 employees already.”
The company held a job fair in Grover Beach on two consecutive days in January. Available positions now include receptionists, inventory specialists, floor managers and online order fulfillment workers, according to its website.
Natural Healing Center is also seeking so-called “budtenders” — retail shop staffers who educate customers about cannabis and are allowed to handle products.
Morro Bay and SLO cannabis developments
Morro Bay currently has one operating cannabis retail business, Perfect Union, which opened in October 2020. The city allows a maximum of two cannabis stores under its city ordinance.
The city has no plans to issue another permit for a cannabis retail shop at this time, Morro Bay city manager Scott Collins said, but the Morro Bay City Council has said it would review the appropriate number of businesses after both have been open for some time.
Collins said the city of Morro Bay has had no enforcement issues with Perfect Union thus far, sayinging that the business is “a good partner with city departments in terms of following state and local requirements for the cannabis industry.”
Collins said the city didn’t budget cannabis revenues this year, but expects cannabis tax revenue will range from $150,000 to $250,000 per year.
In San Luis Obispo, officials recently presented a staff report to the City Council, noting the status of the three cannabis retail shops allowed in the city, in addition to other types of marijuana businesses.
The city of San Luis Obispo forecasts $400,000 for cannabis-related revenues this year and $900,000 for 2022
Megan’s Organic Market opened a cannabis store in San Luis Obispo in August 2020, while Natural Health Center is expected to be the second such store to open in the city. Its business operator permit requires the store to be open by April.
A third cannabis retail business, SLO Cal Roots, is in the midst of completing land use permitting.
The City Council voted Jan. 19 to approve lowering the city’s cannabis operator permit fees to $39,638 across all types of businesses to reflect administrative costs associated with regulating the businesses, which the city committed to adjusting based on workload demand. San Luis Obispo previously charged retail operator permits of more than $96,000.
The city collects taxes from marijuana-related businesses, including manufacturers, cultivators and mobile delivery companies.
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
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