Cresco Labs asked the Wawarsing Planning Board for its third and final six-month extension to develop a cannabis production facility, 18 months after breaking ground on the first stage of the project.

Blocked by maneuvering at New York’s Office of Cannabis Management, Cresco has yet to move forward with its plans for the former VAW Aluminum building it bought two years ago. It also hasn’t made progress on the 383,000-square-foot growing and processing facility for which it has received full approval from the Wawarsing Planning Board.

Cresco owns a so-called registered organization, Valley Agriceuticals, which has a footprint in New York’s medical cannabis market. After months of delays, such firms were allowed in December to apply for licenses to enter the recreational cannabis market. Pressure has grown to let ROs into the market as illegal sales have boomed, especially in New York City.

Among those hurt by the state’s botched rollout are farmers who bought into the first round of legal growing for a recreational market and ended up with barns full of cannabis – and no legal outlet to sell it to. Gov Kathy Hochul on March 18 announced an assessment and review of the OCM with Commissioner Jeanette Moy, aiming for faster progress.

Cresco Labs last summer abandoned a planned merger with Columbia Care that would have made it the nation’s largest cannabis firm. In October, Cresco said it secured a $25.3 million commercial mortgage on the former Schrade/Channel Master site, giving it a chunk of the funding it will need to build a 183,000-square-foot growing and processing facility.