Harlem Inks Lease for NY State’s First Cannabis Retail Dispensary
By: Benyamin Davidsons
New York State’s first lease has been signed to open the city’s first cannabis retail dispensary.
As reported by Crain’s NY, on Wednesday, the state’s Dormitory Authority announced at its board meeting that a deal has been inked for a new retail cannabis dispensary at 248 W. 125th St. in Harlem. The 2,800-square-foot storefront was previously a Covid-19 testing site, and is situated close to the historic Apollo Theater, a jewelry store and an Aldo shoe store. Construction at the space is slated to start soon, said Dormitory Authority CEO Reuben McDaniel III.
The agency is set to approve a preliminary design for the space which was selected by the design-build firm. The space can’t deviate much from the plans, and the licensee has very little input as to the design of the store, McDaniel said. “It’s like walking into a preplanned community picking out your cabinet colors and your wall colors,” he added. Real estate services firm CBRE was tapped to find a leasing location, by the state’s Dormitory Authority, which is responsible for finding and leasing suitable cannabis retail stores. Initially, the state had hoped that retail cannabis sales would begin ringing in this year, but with the first lease just inked, sales will likely not begin till 2023. The agency plans to sign more leases before the new year, McDaniel said at the meeting. The agency has not yet disclosed which licensee will take on the Harlem lease.
As per Crain’s, there were 36 licenses recently awarded by the Cannabis Control Board for conditional adult-use dispensaries. The awardees of the licenses all have had a history with cannabis-related arrests or incarceration, as per the state’s prerequisite in attempting to make amends to those previously negatively impacted. In the new retail leases, the state will be the official tenant of record on the leases, under the name NY Cannabis Social Equity Investment Fund.
The Dormitory Authority will pay deposits and initial costs and build out the spaces, using a $200 million fund allocated by the state budget. The agency will then sublease the ready-to-use sites to the licensed businesses, at the same rental rate that the state pays the landlord, plus the upfront costs it paid to build out the spaces. Contractors working on the build outs have also been selected, based on proposals received in May. The state selected 10 building teams in November to work on the build-outs.
On Friday, as the retail openings near, a Bronx community group launched a temporary model dispensary—in an effort to give licensees and other community members an opportunity to observe how security, delivery, packaging and compliance, will work at a legal cannabis dispensary. “People are applying for this business license, but they don’t even know what it looks like,” said Desmon Lewis, co-founder of the Bronx Community Foundation, which created the model. “They haven’t been behind the counter–and most of the complexity happens behind the counter.”
