Pubdate: Tue, 28 Oct 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: David Migoya

POT-BUSINESS INCUBATOR HAS A HOME; BANK POSSIBLE

Advanced Cannabis Solutions Buys Former Bank Building in S. Denver 
With High Hopes.

A Colorado Springs company that leases property to marijuana growers 
has acquired a former bank building in south Denver with plans to 
turn it into the industry's first business incubator.

And if a consortium of marijuana businessmen cobble together the 
state's first cooperative financial institution, then Advanced 
Cannabis Solutions hopes to have its first location.

"The idea is for the incubator space on the second floor, but if 
there's a banking opportunity, that would be explored," CEO Robert 
Frichtel said. "It's an ample amount of space to do many things."

ACS will relocate to the 1970s style building with its two-story 
windows and neo-Mansard wood shake roof within a few months, Frichtel 
said. Property records show the sale price was $1,050,000 and the 
seller Barerose Evans LLC.

ACS, operating as 6565 E. Evans Owner LLC, took a two-year, $600,000 
hard-money note from a New York-based lender to close the deal, 
property records show. The lender, Evans Street Lendco, has a joint 
venture that allows it to purchase 600,000 shares of ACS stock at 
$4.40 a share.

The 15,734-square-foot building has a bank vault and about 2,000 
safe-deposit boxes, Frichtel said, perfect for anyone wanting to bank 
the marijuana industry, which struggles to find banking services.

The building-to be called The Greenhouse-could serve as headquarters 
for businesses wanting to work on new ways to serve the marijuana 
industry, and its second floor has already been partly leased for 
that purpose, Frichtel said.

Legislators last spring passed a measure to allow for the creation of 
the financial cooperative-essentially a credit union - for the 
marijuana industry to solve its banking troubles. Most marijuana 
businesses have difficulty finding a bank that will openly work with 
them because federal law prohibits financial institutions from doing 
business with illegal enterprises.

Despite 23 states allowing for medical or recreational marijuana 
sales, the drug remains illegal under federal law.

Advanced Cannabis Solutions reluctantly made news in April when the 
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trades of its 
over-the-counter stock because of suspicious trading activity. Not 
long before, ACS had landed up to $30 million in credit to help 
acquire properties it then leases to the marijuana industry.

ACS in late September filed a federal lawsuit against a shareholder 
it says wrongly traded in company securities, causing the SEC problems.

ACS stock trades under CANN and hit a 52-week high of $64.64 in 
March. On Monday, it was at $3.50.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom