LOWELL — The state has only begun reviewing the 100 finalists for medical-marijuana licenses, but Massachusetts Medical Management Associates (MaMMa), Inc. has already won the endorsement of city officials as the most suitable among the five businesses interested in opening a shop in Lowell.

Given the proposed sites of these dispensaries and their security measures among other factors, the city believes Wellesley Hills-based MaMMa would be “most advantageous,” followed by CAS Foundation of Andover, though officials don’t oppose three other proposals, according to City Manager Bernie Lynch.

Residents won’t know where these potential dispensaries might locate, however, at least for another few months because neither the city nor the state wants to share such details with the public yet. The state Department of Public Health told The Sun, through its spokeswoman, on Monday that none of the 100 applications filed on Nov. 21 for medical-marijuana dispensary license is available for public inspection while the agency is reviewing the documents.

The applications only came from those deemed qualified by DPH to move onto the second and final round in the state’s licensees selection process. Last week, DPH released the list of businesses that applied for the second round with the names of the CEOs and the community where they hope to locate. The agency has not released any other content of the applications. DPH said on Monday that it will post all the applications online for public view at the end of the selection process early next year.

On Tuesday, The Sun filed a request with DPH for copies of the applications with proposals to open in some area communities, including Lowell and Billerica.

The applicants that are hoping to open in the region include the following:

Lowell: CAS Foundation (based out of Andover); Fusion Health Group, Inc. (Hopkinton); Releaf Collective Inc. (Groton); Patriot Care Corp. (Harvard); Massachusetts Medical Management Associates, Inc. (Wellesley Hills)

Billerica: Nature’s Cure (Somerville)

Ayer: Central Ave Compassionate Care, Inc. (Ayer); Massachusetts Compassionate Patient Care Corp. (Boston)

Leominster: Hollistics Specialty Care, Inc. (Holyoke)

Fitchburg: Bryng Coron Farms Herbal Remedies, Inc. (Fitchburg)

In the meantime, Lowell Assistant City Manager Adam Baacke said the city does not plan to discuss where a dispensary or dispensaries might open until the DPH grants any one of the five applicants a license. All of the applicants have multiple sites in mind, Baacke said. As nothing will become concrete before licenses are issued, it would not be productive to discuss specific addresses, he said. Baacke added that once a business receives a license and submits an application with the city Zoning Board of Appeals for a special permit, all abutters of the particular project site would then be notified.

In the second phase of the state licensee-selection process, all applicants are asked to demonstrate local support for their projects and if they can comply with “all municipal rules, regulations, ordinances and bylaws,” according to DPH. When asked by The Sun if the city has a process or mechanism through which to gauge public support for the five applicants, Baacke said DPH is only interested in a project’s overall impact on the community, not in neighborhood-level support for proposals. The city has already provided some applicants with a letter expressing the municipal government’s support for them, Baacke said.

In a Nov. 18 letter Lynch wrote to Madeleine Biondolillo, director of the Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality at DPH, the city manager noted that 58 percent of city voters supported the legalization of medical marijuana in the Nov. 6, 2012, election. MaMMa’s proposal is deemed most advantageous and that the city is also “supportive of” CAS Foundation and Commonwealth Therapeutics’ projects, Lynch wrote. Commonwealth Therapeutics is only considering opening in Boston, according to the DPH’s applicants list released last week. Lynch’s letter also says that the city does not oppose the proposals submitted by ReLeaf, Inc., Patriot Care, Inc., and Fusion Health Group, Inc.

Eric Slagle, director of Development Services for the city of Lowell, has said many prospective medical-marijuana license applicants had contacted the city before the Aug. 22 state deadline for the first phase application to find out if the city had a moratorium on medical-marijuana facilities and other facts. The city staff did not have extensive conversations with them, Slagle has said.

Baacke said on Monday that the city invited the 16 parties that had expressed interest in opening in Lowell to submit “applications.”

They were asked to provide “descriptive materials about their proposed operations,” which the city staff evaluated to decide whether to support the projects, according to Lynch’s letter to Biondolillo.

The letter says the criteria used for evaluation included credentials of the key personnel involved, a description of the proposed facilities including locations, if specified, and security plans as well as medical emphasis, details of the operations and business model, projected tax revenues for the city, job creation, direct fiscal contributions to mitigate impacts and support for local charitable organizations.

“All support is contingent on the successful execution of a host community agreement, the review and approval of final security plans by the Lowell Police Department, and subject to the approval of any applicable special permit(s) by the Lowell Zoning Board of Appeals,” Lynch wrote in the letter.