ATC delay detrimental to local teams, according to NJ-based applicant.

Byline: Gabrielle Saulsbery

At least one alternative treatment center license applicant is feeling pangs of stress from a stay granted by courts that put ATC award announcements on hold.

Travis Ally, founder of vertical integration license applicant 93 ID Inc., said that a delay of even three months might be more than local operators who expected decisions by December can handle.

"A three-month delay as no big deal might be the case for multi-state operators, but to folks like uslocal operators had to work hard to put together a complete application," Ally said. "It's not just the costs of the application and lawyers. You have to have site control. Right now we're paying a lease on property in Orange, and we're talking about 50,000 square feet of warehouse space. That's costly. Now we have to pay another four to five months of leases at a huge cost, and we're probably better off than some small agencies who maybe put their life savings [on the line].

"Once you're licensed, it frees up so much more capital," he added. "For entities like ours and smaller ones dealing with less capital, a delay until April might end them."

Small operators gave estimates of their needs to investors based on the implied timing of last year's awards, he said.

For entities like ours and smaller ones dealing with less capital, a delay until April might end them.

-Travis Ally, founder of vertical integration license applicant 93 ID Inc.

"The Department of Health didn't make any guarantees for exactly when the announcement would be made. But in the different networking events, questions were asked about when we could expect to know and the thing we were told consistently was 'you'll know before 2020.' The implication was no later than Dec. 31."

To Ally, the solution is simple: "Winners were already picked," he said. "Let the winners win, and let the lawsuits play out. If the winners...