Cannabis Entrepreneur Hopes New Business Will Help Revitalize City

WATONGA – After two meetings were set and then rescheduled, the Watonga Planning and Zoning Committee will finally convene on Monday, May 23 to consider a rezoning request from an incoming business.

Dr. Thomas Johnson III is the founder of Exalted Connoisseurs Inc. In a phone call Tuesday, Johnson told the Watonga Republican he wants his cannabis business to create jobs, investment and redevelopment in Watonga.

“We’re really involved with the community,” Johnson said.

Exalted Connoisseurs will focus on research and development, Johnson explained. Johnson, who said he’s a chemist by training, has developed proprietary medical cannabis products that are available in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and other areas.

“This has much more of a medical benefit than it does anything else,” Johnson said. “I was able to isolate a molecule that helps with diseases. That’s what I was able to do. It came by way of me getting, and messing around with, the plant itself. It’s something I was able to find that nobody’s been able to find. It just kind of ran me down a rabbit hole, and it’s worked out.”

Johnson said he doesn’t necessarily agree that his business warrants an “industrial” designation, but he’s cooperating with the city. He wants to rezone the vacant property at 106 W. A St., the former Dollar General, which is currently slated for “commercial” use.

Johnson said his business will be “groundbreaking” for the town. He estimates that the initial buildout at Exalted Connoisseurs would cost “3- plus million dollars” and create about 300 jobs, to start. “It’s all local. We’re not outsourcing anything,” Johnson said.

After opening Exalted Connoisseurs, Johnson envisions developing the area around it. He talked about adding new places to eat and new apartments in some of the vacant nearby properties.

“We plan on having it all completed within two years,” he said, “if not sooner.”

Johnson’s plans have drawn opposition from Watongans who caught wind that they involved yet another cannabis business. Forty residents filed a protest against the rezone request, City Clerk Verlen Bills said.

Some believed the request was for a conventional grow operation, though Johnson says that’s not the case.

If his zoning request is denied, Johnson said, he can still open a business at the location but would have to exclude the “research and development” aspect. Instead, it would be a hydroponics store.

Johnson said he doesn’t want to “push out” any of the dispensaries that already exist around town, acknowledging that market is already saturated, but said a hydroponics story would be unique to the area.

Johnson said he was drawn to Watonga because his grandmother grew up here.

“The town can be a lot more,” Johnson said. “What I see in my vision is not just building that building up to be a centerpiece or focal point there. It’s to have the whole entire town flourish.”

The Planning and Zoning Committee meeting will be Monday, May 23 at 5 p.m. in the auditorium of the former City Hall at 117 N. Weigle.