Since the passing of Act 16 or Senate Bill 3 in 2016, the business landscape in Pennsylvania has been preparing for the great changes that medical marijuana or low concentration THC cannabis will bring to thousands in need. Just recently, there was an article published about the scientifically proven impact that medical cannabis has on epilepsy patients—in that episodes of seizures significantly decreased after taking prescribed amounts of medical cannabis pills.

This is welcome news to the many entrepreneurs in the States that already allow for the growing and dispensing of medical cannabis. Now, Pennsylvania is posed this year to formally legalize growing and dispensing  to patients, most importantly seniors and children, who suffer from such maladies as cancer, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, neuropathies, Huntington’s disease, Crohn’s disease, PTSD, glaucoma, sickle cell anemia, and for serious conditions related to autism. While there are medical options for some of these diseases, others face the devastating reality that there are very few. It is about time more pain management options will become available.

As the Pennsylvania Department of Health gets set to approve applicants as growers and dispensers, the focus then will shift on the location of where each will be. In the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, there will only initially be 2 grower permits issued and 4 dispensary permits issued. Throughout the state according to the PA Department of Health, only 12 permits will be issued initially for growers and 27 permits for dispensaries. Surely, the Pennsylvania Legislature was overly conservative in its issuance of permits, which will most likely lead to a backlog of patients in need of cannabis oils, pills, or inhalers. Hopefully, the Governor and the Legislature will see the immediate positive impact of patient usage and the potential to generate greater revenue for State and local agencies.

Since there is so much information now available on medical cannabis and so many companies that are researching even greater ways to bring products to the market for a variety of other ailments, the unfounded fear of widespread regular marijuana use and a resultant population of hallucinated wanderers cannot persist. It is the THC in marijuana that causes hallucinations and “getting high”. The amount of THC in medical marijuana is in many cases less than 0.5%. Plus, it appears from states that have legalized that the prescriptions issued are very well controlled in cases of patient abuse. In reality, we are looking at seniors who want to spend their final years in peace and with less pain, who will be hoping to cut down on synthetic pain pills, and instead substitute medical cannabis pills in many cases. We will see families with children who suffer epileptic seizures control the intake of what their child ingests, and hopefully there would be less episodes of a sudden, nerve-wracking seizure attack.

We believe that for providing grower services to a region, as well as dispensary services to a locality, Monroe County must be given serious consideration. The northeastern part of the state includes a 10 county area. From Monroe County, one can access Interstates 380, 80, and 476 quite easily. More to the point, our property boasts incredibly wonderful visibility, especially for a grower. The instant access to State Route 611 is ideal for logistical planning of product distribution—to help get to the major interstates very quickly. With a location like ours, a grower should proudly display its environmentally friendly industrial presence. After all, growers have a very important role in helping to make people’s lives less painful. The zoning on this property allows for a conditional use for greenhouses and the such. Since the medical cannabis industry is very new, most municipalities have not changed their ordinances in specifically identifying medical cannabis growing facilities and medical cannabis dispensaries.

For the dispensary, we have another property on Route 196 that is commercially zoned, and as a dispensary is in essence a specific pharmacy, it should qualify automatically as a permitted use. The parking and visibility are outstanding, and its easy access location will be a welcome relief for patients.

​Neighborhood resistance is only a symptom of misinformation and lack of due diligence. Once that has been overcome, construction can begin in earnest. Jobs will be created. Tax revenue will be collected. Patients will seek a more natural and ever-evolving scientifically supported means to live life with a calm that was not available before. Pennsylvania and Monroe County will be better for it. 








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The Poconos have changed so much for the better since its heyday a few decades ago.  What has changed in particular is that aside from the resurgence of the booming tourism sector there are viable non-tourism related employers that have long- term plans to stay and grow. In the last decade alone, the Pocono area has seen tremendous expansion of the health care sector, in particular the Pocono area is now serviced by more than one major provider. As it currently stands, there are three major health systems that have a presence in the Poconos: Pocono Medical Center, St. Luke’s Hospital Network, and the Lehigh Valley Hospital Network. For a population that hovers somewhere between 150,000 to 180,000 people, this is quite impressive.
For many years, the health care sector in the Poconos was dominated by Pocono Medical Center. However, as many more people fled the high taxes and high cost of living of New York and New Jersey, it became evident that either Pocono Medical Center had to expand more rapidly or there would be a lurking competitor(s) ready to enter the market. The result was that the commercial real estate construction sector exploded with very rapid growth, with much of the construction attributed to health care sector related building projects. On a drive through the Poconos, take a look at the companies that advertise on highway billboards. Many of them are in fact health care based providers.
Of course, as there is proliferation of one sector, there will be positive spillover effects towards others. The tourism sector had already been established well before the realization of population growth and health sector development. However, other sectors have been slow to adjust. For example, finding decent restaurants or even in some cases any restaurant in the Pocono area was surprisingly challenging for many years. While concentrated in certain towns like Stroudsburg and Tannersville, there were big gaps of very little to no options to eat in the majority of other towns. Even the lodging sector had been slow to adjust. With the construction and success of Mount Airy Casino and the newly built Kalahari Water Park and Resort, instantly there were more hotel rooms available. However, not everyone wants to stay in a casino or a resort. To really become a center for tourism and business, there have to be alternatives. What the Poconos is truly lacking are some higher end quality hotels with their own restaurants and ambience.
If there are any long-stay hotels in the area, there are certainly not enough. It is not even that clear if any of these hotels were even built recently. At least with a long-stay hotel, those businesspeople who have vast territories or businesses to solicit can come back to the peace and quiet of a non-themed lodging option. Dinner at one of the now multiple dining options throughout the Poconos can now end with a gorgeous, spacious, and comfortably insulated room facing the Appalachian Mountains. Think of the hotel that you can offer travelers where there are over 100 acres of wooded and cleared land with fresh Pennsylvania mountain air to safely and leisurely walk after a long day of work or touristic fun—of which being a tourist can be work, too!
While building your own reputation as a long-stay for businesspeople or for families or couples that like to be treated with a more regal touch, there are also plenty of opportunities to partner with Mount Airy Casino or Kalahari to take overflow traffic. How about putting that gorgeous land to go use? Just for fun, and because the sector is very competitive, your long-stay hotel can actually be a wedding destination for newlyweds who want the natural setting, the view, and the centrality that no other location can offer. It does not even have to be a core part of your business plan. However, the Paradise Golf land has undeniable beauty and unrivaled location. As you have read, there are many reasons why your next construction building project should take place here on the Paradise Golf land. We encourage you to take a closer look at our fine property and make the move now! Your next great investment does not have to be in New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas, Chicago, or Boston. The Poconos awaits you with open arms! Come and be embraced!

The great state of Pennsylvania has the second oldest population in the country behind the popular vacation destination state of Florida. However, many who have lived in the north eastern part of the United States have opted not only to vacation frequently in Florida but outright move there as well! It makes sense since Florida typically has many more days of sunshine and perhaps some famous attractions than other states can boast. However, there is a sizable population of older Americans who don’t feel the need to uproot themselves hundreds of miles away for the sun. They see living where they are as just fine—but they wish that there would be more conveniences and perhaps better neighborly interactions.
That is why the popularity of senior living communities have risen exponentially. It is not enough to say that the Baby Boomers are aging and therefore there is natural demand for such communities. Instead, we should focus on the fact that these Boomers grew up in an age where the world did not move as fast as it does today, and there is a real sense of nostalgia. In Florida and surrounding states like North and South Carolina, these popular senior living communities have capitalized on that nostalgia. Barren land that otherwise had no improvement to it, including no water or sewer access, was fully improved with all necessary utilities. Then cottages or single and double wide trailers constituted all the housing needs that seniors would care to upkeep. The lawns, roads, interior and exterior maintenance repairs were all the responsibility of the management company, the homeowner’s association, or the original developer.
In the north east, we have land to spare. We have also become accustomed to having our space, especially those of us who have lived in urban environments for many years. It was understood and accepted that to live the urban life was to sacrifice some space and income. However, in the golden years, those trade-offs need not cause a burden anymore. Deservedly so, our seniors should have the comfortable life that comes with years of hard work while also enjoying fresh mountain air. These seniors should not be bored with their time but planning their days in and around their communities. Some of the time would be allocated to seeing their children and grandchildren, while the rest would be devoted to country living leisure with all the city conveniences at their immediate access.  
That brings us back to Pennsylvania. By and large, Pennsylvania is a state that is land abundant and mountainous. It is a state with very temperate conditions. Typically, natural disasters are not common especially in the north eastern part of the state. That is the great benefit of having mountains ever present instead of plains and flat lands. In the winter, bitter cold bites for a month at most. In the spring, rain gushes for a few weeks in sum. In the summer, hot sticky days last for a couple of weeks only (of which air conditioning makes those days very tolerable!). In the fall, you have 3 months of the most beautiful natural landscape to rival the most gifted painter’s artistic creation. The weather is really quite reasonable, too—not warm but definitely not winter. There is no need for shutters against awesomely powerful winds, no shifting foundations to absorb high readings on a Richter scale, no underground bunker to hide in and then to emerge hoping your house is still in one piece. The consistent peace of mind is an asset that has not perhaps been fully appreciated in this very high cost of living time of which we are a part. As we know, weather is not enough.
With money so cheap for almost a decade, investors who had seen Pennsylvania as an opportunity for commercial growth built amenities and promoted businesses that had helped to fuel the population boom in the South. Whether unknowingly or not, their collective efforts have made it very easy for senior living developers to begin creating the most optimal community without having to recreate a whole new town from scratch. The north eastern part of Pennsylvania has especially seen such commercial growth including increased retail and office availability. The convenience of leaving your home to partake in a competitive atmosphere of consuming has never been easier in Pennsylvania. Take this opportunity to learn more about communities that have yet to be built and the advantages of locating here to make it happen!

In making that critical decision to purchase the right property for development, it is important to know what each municipality permits to develop. In many cases, the more experienced developer can tell right away the difference between a residential zoned vacant land and a commercially zoned vacant land. However, sometimes there are situations where even properties located in a commercially zoned area do not have consistent zoning.

Throughout the state of Pennsylvania, when certain municipalities are more lax with zoning, any parcels that are located on a state road typically have open zoning. Therefore, commercial use of vacant land is easier to obtain than municipalities with more defined zoning laws.

For our property, the developed part of the land has an R-2 zone. In some municipalities, that would mean a medium density residential development zone. The nice thing about an R-2 zone is that the developer is not restricted to only single family housing. That would typically be an R-1 zone.  Instead, the developer has other options like residential based development that is more commercial in nature, but would not require much overall land use of a given parcel. For example, a hotel or motel can be constructed on an R-2 zone as designated by this municipality which is Paradise Township. Retirement facilities and group homes can also be built.

It is also possible to use the R-2 zone for constructing schools such as elementary or secondary education schools or even colleges. So, if you are looking for that right property with great advertising exposure and location, we should discuss future options together!