Soft launches of second New York pharmacy, Social Equity Fund status up in the air

By Adam Jackson

A second New York City dispensary is slated to open in Manhattan more than two weeks after the state saw its first legal adult sale. Union Square Travel Agency: A Cannabis Store will be located in the former home of an old Chase bank on the corner of Broadway and East 13th Street, across from the Union Square subway station.

The store is slated to open in February but had a soft opening on Friday at a different facility (with an entrance at 62 East 13th St.) while the main 5,000-square-foot space is being built out.

51% of proceeds go to the Doe Fund, which provides housing, job training and counseling to marginalized communities in New York City. Additionally, the store will only sell produce grown in the state, with a focus on women and BIPOC-owned businesses.

Photo by Ferdinand Stoehr via Unsplash

The pharmacy is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekends, seven days a week.

The first legal adult dispensary opened December 28 in a former Gap retail store in Lower Manhattan near Astor Place. The historic opening marked the long-awaited launch of a state marijuana market that many analysts expect could become one of the most promising in the country.

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Despite the increase in numerous illegal businesses across the state, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Dec. 21 that Housing Works, a minority-controlled nonprofit focused on helping people living with HIV and AIDS, is opening the first of 36 recently licensed dispensaries will be which will start selling cannabis to the general public. Housing Works is known for running a small chain of charity retail stores.

The state is expected to issue another 139 licenses to about 900 applicants in the coming months. The state reserved its first round of retail licenses for applicants with marijuana convictions or their relatives, as well as some nonprofit groups.

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It also planned a $200 million public-private fund to help social justice claimants with real estate, though its status and how much progress has been made isn’t exactly clear. Industry advocacy groups told Green Market Report in November that there was little news on how much progress the fund managers have made in raising actual capital or injecting government money to allow actual retail space to be leased for cannabis social participation companies.

The New York State Housing Authority then missed its December 30 deadline to report to the governor, the legislature and the public on its status and details of the social justice program and its relationship with the firm it has chosen to be its fund manager. A DASNY spokesman told NY Cannabis Insider last week that the agency “will release the report soon.”

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The New York City Bureau of Cannabis Management also extended the window for applying for licenses for marijuana testing labs from the originally planned New Year’s Eve closure to March 31.

Chris Alexander, the OCM’s executive director, told the Cannabis Control Board at a public meeting in December that the state was still looking for top-flight lab candidates. “It’s a cornerstone of the market we’re building,” he said.

Alexander also said the state is providing more resources to support the legal marijuana market and quell the thriving illicit trade, including:

• A public education campaign entitled Why Buy Legal New York.
• A new verification emblem displayed by licensed retailers.
• Ongoing prosecutions against unlicensed retailers, including seizures of more than $4 million worth of illegal cannabis products at 53 locations by the New York Sheriff’s Joint Task Force.

This article originally appeared in Green Market Report and has been republished with permission.