Florida’s medical marijuana industry is increasingly dominated by massive multi-state operators like Trulieve and Planet 13, but Orlando cannabis consumers now have a new home-grown option in Goldflower. After a warm response from weed enthusiasts to their locations from Sebring to St. Pete, the fast-growing boutique brand built its first local dispensary — and eighth overall — on East Colonial, and I attended the store’s grand opening on July 7 to sample some of their premium products and interview Goldflower’s president and chief revenue officer, Angelo Lombardi.
A veteran of the hospitality industry, Lombardi had retired to a farm in Nashville after serving as La Quinta Inn’s chief operating officer when a friend in Oregon invited him to consult on his cannabis farm.
“At this point, I’m 45 years old, I have zero experience with cannabis. I know nothing about it. I grew up during the ‘say no to drugs’ era — Nancy Reagan, gateway drugs,” Lombardi recalls. “The business that I looked at was a bit of a mess, but I love agriculture and I loved the idea of getting elbow-deep into business. I saw what were amazing people, extremely passionate, taking an industry that was not just under-loved, but actively had opposition and headwinds, and trying to make a go of it.” After researching the plant and becoming a consumer himself, Lombardi joined his first cannabis corporation in 2018, and came to Goldflower four years ago.
Goldflower’s latest greenhouse in Mount Dora supplies their oil products — including the solventless live rosin inside their proprietary AirPod-esque Turn vapes — while their 30,000-square-foot growing complex in Bradenton uses “comparable to organic” cultivation for premium smokeable flower that Lombardi describes as having “more vibrant color, more distinct odor, because the plant is allowed to truly follow its genetic makeup.” Many of those genetics derive from partnerships with cannabis-culture celebrities like former NFL star Ricky Williams and Bob Marley’s son Rohan, whose Lion Order King Clementine indica is impressively mellow without being overpowering.
“We are making a conscious effort of … pursuing cannabis culture in a way that creates trust and expertise,” says Lombardi. “Our partners are built under the same concept as our product is made: to show a consumer that we take cannabis serious, we take their health serious, and there’s nothing in that Mylar [bag] or that jar that we wouldn’t consume ourselves.”
While Florida’s “seed-to-sale” vertical integration sets high barriers for entering the business, Lombardi says it improves the state’s market by forcing producers to commit with a significant investment. As a result, he says, “The competitor profile in Florida is a fantastic profile [and] it creates a fantastic cannabis client. The clientele is great, the climate is great, the environment; there’s amazing product here, and the level of testing, product allowance and growth is one that allows us to be methodical about it, versus what we saw in the West that is often referred to as a ‘green rush.’ Folks standing up, brands disappearing overnight, throwing money at it, paying for distribution. Here, if you’re making it to retail, you’re providing the customer with something they want and they can trust.”
Unlike other coldly clinical cannabis stores whose interiors are concealed behind frosted glass, Goldflower’s store welcomes customers with wide windows that reveal warm woods and vibrant wall art. “We try to build this store where it’s comfortable, not just for a long-term cannabis consumer, but someone new to the market,” Lombardi explains. “So [if] someone comes in later in life, they’re starting cannabis for the first time, we want [the store] to be as clean and as safe as the product is.”
According to Lombardi, about one in six Florida adults are already medical marijuana card-holders, but he’d love to see the legal weed market expand by allowing reciprocity for snowbirds with cards from other states. And although Florida is currently a medical-only state, behind the counters Goldflower is already prepared for potential legalization of adult recreational use (“rec”) with scalable design features like pass-through windows.
“Two budtenders in a typical dispensary during the non-rush time can run the whole facility,” Lombardi says. “Come rec, I’d expect to have all the counters full and then have a crew back here filling orders … so this space gives us the ability to grow.”
However, Lombardi insists that even though Goldflower supports efforts toward marijuana reform, including legalizing home-grow, “We don’t need adult use. While we’d love to see safe banking and rescheduling, we don’t need rescheduling for Goldflower to be successful.” At the same time, he hopes Congress will address loopholes in the Federal farm bill regarding hemp derivatives.
“I look forward to the day when the multiple industries that affect both the medical and recreational side of cannabis have a safety net over them, and I don’t believe the answer is necessarily less safety on the medical side,” he says. “At the end of the day, my oldest daughter consumes cannabis and I am confident that when she consumes our product, I know exactly what she’s smoking.”
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This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2025.