Member Spotlight: Bridge City Collective

Member Spotlight

Member Spotlight: Bridge City Collective

 

Portia Mittons
Bridge City Collective
bridgecitycollective.com

Portia Mittons is a partner at Bridge City Collective, the company’s Vice President of Retail in Illinois, and the co-owner of cannabis retailer MAKS in Oregon. She also serves as Vice Chair of CBAI’s Board of Directors and chairs our Minority Access Committee, where she works to help social equity applicants thrive in the cannabis industry.

We reached out to Portia to ask about Bridge City Collective’s new East Dubuque location, and she provided the following responses, which were edited slightly for length and clarity.

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Can you tell us about BCC’s new Illinois location
We had our grand opening on March 9, and our location is magnificent! We were awarded that region in the lottery and landed on East Dubuque for two main reasons: 1) it borders two states, one of which is not currently recreational, and 2) the town wanted us there. It’s much easier to get work done when you don’t have people and entities working against you. As my late Uncle Billy would say, “I go with who likes me because it’s easier.” He may have been talking about women, but I’ve found it to be true in business too.

What differentiates BCC from your competitors in the cannabis space?
I believe our leadership’s years of experience operating mom and pop type dispensaries in a more saturated market helps us tremendously. We’ve lowered our learning curve by having firsthand knowledge of small yet impactful things like picking a POS system, hiring, staffing, gauging the customer base, etc. Although we’re technically an MSO, we’re not a big conglomerate. We don’t take a cookie cutter approach; we look at the area and create a culture that fits into the existing DNA.

Portia Mittons, Partner & VP of Retail in Illinois, Bridge City Collective

Portia Mittons is a partner at Bridge City Collective, the company’s Vice President of Retail in Illinois, and the co-owner of cannabis retailer MAKS in Oregon. She also serves as Vice Chair of CBAI’s Board of Directors and chairs our Minority Access Committee, where she works to help social equity applicants thrive in the cannabis industry.

How did the licensing process differ in the states where BCC has locations?
The short version is that licensing is harder and more expensive in Illinois than Oregon and New Jersey, but it’s almost like comparing apples to oranges because the frameworks are different in each state. The common thread across all three states? In order for our industry to see the changes we need, there needs to be some unity, especially on the big things that matter to everyone.

How has Illinois’ social equity program impacted your journey?
The positive impact is that our licensing fees are lower. But overall, it made the process to get a license hard and arduous because of how the application process was set up. We lost valuable time and money just trying to get in the door.

What issues are most critical to your business and our industry right now?
I have a very long list, but I’ll start with taxes, testing, and purchasing limits. Being one of the highest taxed states in the nation, combined with extremely stringent testing requirements and low purchase quantities, is pushing people out the door and into the arms of other bordering states, the “legacy” market, and unregulated intoxicating hemp market.

We believed the state when they said they were creating a protected market for those of us who followed the path to legalization, and we believe the state will uphold that promise. We believe legislators want to see us thrive and contribute to the tax base in a major way, employ Illinois’ workforce, sell safe products and contribute to R3 program so we can keep uplifting our communities. We believe the state sees the value in all those things and will not succumb to the misrepresentation of businesses that selling unregulated and untested products.

What do you want policymakers to know about Illinois’ cannabis industry?
1) We are businesspeople first. 2) If you want people to spend more money with the state, you need to create an environment that allows and invites them to spend more money. 3) Onsite consumption lounges could help improve the space for everyone.