By Tom Hesse
A major cannabis company will close its facility in north Denver and lay off 132 employees in May.
PharmaCann Inc., which is the parent company of LivWell, detailed the job losses in a March 20 notice to the state of Colorado. The 132 layoffs include employees who work in cultivation, data, farming and production, according to the notice.
“The entire Facility will close on May 20, 2026. The action is expected to be permanent,” chief manufacturing officer Nathan Fete wrote in the notification. The production and distribution facility is located at 5141 N. National Western Drive.
PharmaCann, which is based in Illinois, merged with LivWell in 2022. In December, a company called Vireo Growth Inc. announced it was buying PharmaCann’s retail properties in Colorado. That deal gave the Minneapolis-based Vireo control of 41 Colorado dispensaries at a cost of $49 million in stock, according to the Vireo press release. Vireo Growth stock was trading around 40 cents per share on Monday.
Marijuana sales have been on the decline for years in Colorado, according to state figures. Sales peaked in 2021 at around $2.2 billion according to the state revenue department, but have been on a downward trajectory since then. In 2025, sales totaled just over $1.3 billion.
Tom Hesse is a reporter for CPR News.
