Vireo Growth Had 14 Dispensaries in March 2025. It Now Has 170.

Vireo Growth ran 14 dispensaries in three states in March 2025. On October 8, 2026 it ran about 170 in ten states, and deals it has already signed would take it to roughly 270, enough for Vireo to call itself the largest US cannabis operator by store count.

It got there mostly by paying with its own shares and, more and more, by buying companies in financial trouble. Its share count has roughly quadrupled, its borrowings have doubled since December, and its stock is down 49% this year.

About the numbers: store counts, deal terms, debt and share counts come from Vireo's 10-K, 10-Q, deal releases and the S-4 it filed on October 9, 2026. Share prices are Yahoo Finance closes through October 9. Counts for pending deals are from each announcement and may change at closing.

From 14 stores to 170

When John Mazarakis, a co-founder of the cannabis lender Chicago Atlantic, became Vireo's chief executive in December 2024, the company was a small operator in Minnesota, New York and Maryland. As of March 4, 2025, it had 14 dispensaries, per its annual report.

Then it started buying.

Vireo also bought Scotts Miracle-Gro's Hawthorne hydroponics business and a business called Bridgewell. Neither sells cannabis. In May it bought a New York cultivation facility from its landlord, Innovative Industrial Properties, for about $90 million including costs, financed with a $49 million seller note from IIP and a loan from Chicago Atlantic. On October 2 it repaid the IIP note with a $60 million, 8.5% loan from Needham Bank that added $11 million in new cash.

Revenue followed. Vireo reported $209.3 million in the second quarter of 2026, up from $48.1 million a year earlier, and $41.5 million in adjusted EBITDA, per its results. In the S-4 for its Planet 13 merger, Vireo puts its 2025 revenue at $1.3 billion as if every probable deal had already closed.

Buying the debt first

The Schwazze deal is the model for what Vireo is doing now. Schwazze, which ran dispensaries in Colorado and New Mexico, had fallen behind on its financial reports and was in default on its 13% notes. In October 2025, Vireo bought about $91 million of those notes for about $62 million, paid in Vireo shares, and signed a restructuring agreement. In November the notes' collateral agent used about $111 million of note principal to win Schwazze's assets at a public foreclosure auction, without a bankruptcy filing. Vireo got 45 dispensaries and two production facilities, and took on $44.3 million of notes owed to Chicago Atlantic.

Mazarakis called it "an attractive entry point" that reflected "current market conditions." His own estimate of the price was under four times Schwazze's pro forma EBITDA.

Most of Vireo's next 100 stores come from companies under financial strain:

• The Cannabist Company: Vireo agreed in July to buy Cannabist's operations in Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey and West Virginia for up to $35 million, $18.75 million in cash and $16.25 million in seller notes, out of Cannabist's insolvency case. An Ontario court approved the sale on August 18, and closings are staged state by state into 2027. That's up to 25 dispensaries. According to the court monitor's report, Vireo's first offer in the sale process was told it needed "significantly higher consideration."
• FLUENT: the Florida operator is merging into Vireo in an all-stock deal, with about $30 million of FLUENT debt, for which Chicago Atlantic is the agent, converted into shares. That adds about 34 Florida stores. We covered that deal in detail in our Florida story, Vireo Is Buying Florida's No. 2 Chain.
• Planet 13: an all-stock merger signed in July, at 0.0154 Vireo shares per Planet 13 share. Vireo's S-4 says that if the merger isn't completed, Planet 13 has "substantial doubt" about its ability to raise enough financing to keep operating. It would add 36 dispensaries, according to the July merger announcement; the S-4 lists 30 active locations.
• Ohio: the exception. Vireo agreed to buy four Ohio businesses, with eight dispensaries and a cultivation site, for about $208 million in shares. One of the sellers is a company tied to Mazarakis, who recused himself from the board vote.

The cost: shares, debt and Chicago Atlantic

Vireo has paid for most of this with stock. It had the equivalent of about 12.2 million shares at the end of 2024, adjusted for its 30-for-1 share consolidation in June 2026, and about 49.3 million in August 2026. The S-4's pro forma figures assume about 68 million weighted-average shares for the first half of 2026 once Planet 13 and the other probable deals are included.

Its borrowings have grown too: about $322 million at June 30, 2026, up from about $154 million six months earlier, per its quarterly filing. About $87 million of that is mortgage debt that replaced the finance lease on its New York facility when it bought the building.

Chicago Atlantic sits on several sides of this. Mazarakis is a partner of Chicago Atlantic Group. The lender's affiliates hold Vireo's second-lien term loan and other notes, and are owed money in the Schwazze and FLUENT deals. Vireo paid Chicago Atlantic $6.0 million in the first half of 2026 for underwriting, legal, accounting, data and real estate services, per its 10-Q. It paid nothing a year earlier.

The market has turned against the strategy. Vireo's US-listed shares closed at $9.38 on October 9, down 49% this year. Because Vireo pays in stock, every drop makes the next deal more expensive in shares. In August it announced a buyback of up to 2.4 million shares, with Mazarakis saying its valuation "does not fully reflect the strength of our business."

What's next

The Planet 13 merger needs a majority of all Planet 13 shares and a majority of the votes cast by its minority shareholders, excluding its founders. The S-4 Vireo filed on October 9 left the meeting date blank. FLUENT and the Ohio deal are expected to close in the fourth quarter. The Cannabist closings run into 2027. If they all close, Vireo will run roughly 270 dispensaries in 15 states, most of them added in about two years.