Dr. Andre Dev started the Community Cannabis Network of Rhode Island to help ensure cannabis co-ops succeeded as enduring, locally owned businesses. So, when the pool of potential cannabis retailer applications for RI started rolling in at the end of 2025, he expected a handful of cooperatives to apply.
“I was worried, frankly—[with] this new license type that nobody had done before in the country, and that many people didn’t even know what it was—there weren’t going to be enough applicants,” said Dev. “So when 12 worker co-op applicants showed up in zone 2, which is more even than the social equity applicants in zone 2, I remember thinking that there’s probably something going on there.”
There’s a striking pattern among the applications: more than a third of the cannabis retail applications for zone 2 (which includes Providence) consist of nine co-ops that plan to operate on two city blocks. All of these nine co-op applications have remarkably similar names that appear boilerplate for a cooperative such as “Friendship Co-op Inc.,” “Teamwork Cooperative Inc.” and “Unity Cooperative Inc.” The proposed properties are owned by six property management companies who share the same business address and the same registered agent.
Similarities Between Nine Cooperative Retail Applications
As previously reported by The Providence Eye, the RI Cannabis Control Commission plans to release 24 new retail licenses via lottery across six state zones, with four licenses being awarded to each zone. Providence is in zone 2, which also includes Johnston, Lincoln, North Providence, and Central Falls.
Since cannabis was legalized in 2022, the State has only allowed nine retail licenses. Of the four licenses to be awarded to zone 2 during this application cycle, one of the licenses is reserved for a cooperatively-owned business and another is reserved for social equity applicants.
For Dev, a co-op was the best model to avoid corporate capture of the industry through “slave master clauses,” a term used in Illinois to describe loopholes for businesses that simply promised to hire people who qualified for social equity status.
“Basically, it’s a way for large corporate cannabis… [to] pretend to be social equity applicants,” said Dev. “We felt [cooperatives were] a better way to ensure both local ownership and ownership of these businesses and licenses that the state is giving out to the people who the law was actually meant to help.”
Businesses applied for the retail license lottery in December, and their applications are now publicly available on the CCC’s website.
There are 12 cooperatives that applied to operate in zone 2:
- Legal Greens RI proposed a location in Johnston with six co-owners.
- PVD Flowers applied to open a store on Westminster Street in Federal Hill with nine co-owners, including Dev and his business.
- Rhode Island Raised is looking to open a store Allens Avenue with four co-owners.
The rest of the co-op applications in zone 2 list only two owners and are proposing stores on the same two city blocks in Providence:
| Besties Co-op Inc. | 58 Printery Street, Providence, RI 02904 |
| Collaboration Cooperative Inc. | 32 Branch Avenue, 2nd Floor, Providence, RI 02904 |
| Friendship Co-op Inc. | 36 Branch Avenue, Providence, RI 02904 |
| Trustful Cooperative Inc. | 60 Printery Street, Providence, RI 02904 |
| Partners for Life Cooperative Inc. | 116 Printery Street, Providence, RI 02904 |
| Work Hard Co-op Inc. | 19 Livingston Street, Providence, RI 02904 |
| Teamwork Cooperative Inc. | 716 North Main Street, Providence, RI 02904 |
| Synergy Co-op Inc. | 30 Livingston Street, Providence, RI 02904 |
| Unity Cooperative Inc. | 696-710 North Main Street, Providence, RI 02904 |
Though each of these nine businesses lists different owners and contact information, they all share a registered agent: Northwest Registered Agent LLC, a national service based in Spokane, Washington. Besides sharing nearby proposed locations, six of these cooperatives share nearly identical bylaws (Besties, Unity, Trustful, Synergy, Collaboration, Friendship). The other three also seem to have very similar bylaws (Partners for Life, Teamwork, Work Hard). Multiple representatives from the cannabis industry, including Dev, expressed suspicion over this cluster of applicants.
“There’s only one co-op license to be given out in zone 2, and if you put in multiple applications in zone 2, you’re basically gaming the system,” said Dev. “And they’re doing it basically with money, right? Because you have to understand, every one of these applications cost $7,500 just to put in the application.”
The Cannabis Control Commission has strict rules against submitting multiple entries into the lottery system.
“An applicant who applies for any retail cannabis license may only submit one application per geographic zone,” reads the CCC regulations. “A person or entity cannot be an interest holder with respect to more than one applicant or application per zone irrespective of license type.”
Only one of the businesses responded to questions from The Providence Eye. Brian Snow is a co-owner of Teamwork Cooperative and said he has no knowledge of the other businesses with similar applications.
“I’ve been part of that industry for a while, developing them for other people, and I want to get my hand in the pot,” said Snow, who works as an electrical contractor. “We’ve done work for a lot of other cannabis grows in the state and other states. I do stuff for other people, and I want to do something for myself.”
Snow said he found this location by looking up addresses, driving around and doing his “due diligence.”
“Like anything else, you research the area and try to figure out where it can go, where it can’t go,” said Snow, who said he did not know about the other applications for the same general location. “I assume the landlord’s always going to be looking for a business to open because they don’t make money not renting the space out. I don’t have any information on that.”
Location, Location, Location: Why do Nine Co-ops Plan to Open on the Same Corner?
The blocks where the nine co-ops applied are mostly occupied by cars from Dean Auto Collision Center and Richmond Motor Sales & Rental. The Providence Eye reached out to the businesses for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
The properties themselves are owned by six property management companies: RAB Properties, Sabar Realty, N.M. Realty, Pettis Properties, AAB Properties and Printery Properties. These companies share the same business address, 1052 N Main Street. This address is also the law office of the registered agent, Thomas Badway, for all six property management companies. Badway is the President of Sabar Realty and Richmond Motor Sales, as well as the registered agent for Dean Auto Collision
Mr. Badway’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Dev said it is still unclear if there is one party behind this effort, but the pattern is a cause for concern.
According to a page on the CCC’s website, a landlord who owns a single property, like a strip mall, is allowed to enter contracts with more than one cannabis retail applicant.
“That might only mean that a landlord who owns several properties on North Main Street applied for several licenses, but didn’t put their name on it because you’re not allowed to do that,” said Dev. “We found some of the people who applied for worker-owned licenses turned out to all be affiliated with this former state senator who did jail time for some sort of fraud.”
The former state senator referenced here is Christopher Maselli, who represented Johnston until the day before pleading guilty to eight counts of bank fraud in 2010. The FBI said Maselli falsified documents and lied about his income in obtaining over $1.7 million in mortgages and loans. Maselli was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison.
The Rhode Island Supreme Court reinstated Maselli’s law license in 2016, and according to his Linkedin, he was an attorney at Thomas Badway’s office from 2016 to 2025. Maselli was listed as the registered agent for all of the above property management companies until March 5, 2026.
Maselli did not respond to requests for comment.
What’s Happening With All The Applications?
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking regulators from even reviewing applications after Rhode Island was sued by multiple out-of-state business entrepreneurs.
“All applications for retail licenses that were pending when the District Court issued its order, including the nine mentioned in your email, were still being carefully reviewed by the Commission,” said CCC Spokesperson Charon Rose. “At this time, due to the Court’s order, the Commission is preparing for the possibility that the retail license application process previously held by the Commission will be rendered null and void, that the Commission will open a new application period as soon as possible, and that applicants will need to submit new applications during such application period.”
Whenever the process moves forward, the competitive pool of applicants will be vigilantly watching to ensure the lottery process is fair to all eligible applicants.
“This could all be a coincidence, but we know that when cannabis gets legalized and there are licenses set out for disadvantaged people, we know the powerful people will try to take advantage of it,” said Dev. “Even if this could be a coincidence, it’s important to get to the bottom of it.”
Eric Halvarson is a City News Reporter for The Providence Eye.
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