Colia Best has the ambition and drive to get his cannabis business off the ground.
What’s missing is where to put it.
Best wants to have a property in hand to increase his chances of securing a retail microbusiness license with the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission. He’s been searching within a 30-mile radius of where he currently lives in Sicklerville, as far south as Atlantic City, and as far north as Burlington City since February.
Still no takers. He’s left messages with local officials. Many don’t call him back.
Not since the mid-1970s, the dawn of legalized casino gaming, has Atlantic City seen an opportunity for the growth of a new industry. Kashawn McKinley, director of constituent services and special projects for Atlantic City, says the same city that attracts tourists with its casinos and headline concerts is working to become a cannabis hub for the region.
Around the state, many so-called legacy operators — people who sold weed on the black market — are having difficulty getting approval from municipalities, even after they’ve been given state approval.
iAnthus — which acquired MPX NJ earlier this year and opened a medical marijuana dispensary in Atlantic City on May 5 — wants to expand to sell to the adult market there real soon, NJ Advance Media has learned. So does The Botanist, which sells medical weed on the Boardwalk, and is owned by Acreage.
iAnthus is set to appear before the Atlantic City City Council on Wednesday to make its pitch to add adult weed sales at its facility, according to the Council’s meeting agenda posted Friday.
An old pawnshop on Pacific Avenue is on track to become Atlantic City’s first legal retail cannabis shop after getting zoning approval Tuesday from the state’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.
The CRDA, which regulates zoning in the city’s Tourism District, unanimously approved an application from Sonraj LLC, to open a class 5 micro dispensary at 2415 Pacific Ave., directly behind Boardwalk Hall, a long-vacant property. The company will call the shop “The Healing Side,” according to its application.
At the Tuesday meeting of the board of directors for the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, members will consider a proposal for a cannabis dispensary at 2415 Pacific Ave.
The site is currently home to a vacant retail building, set between Delilah’s Den and a corner liquor store a block off the Boardwalk.
The application is for a “Class 5 micro dispensary for the sale of recreational cannabis” and requires a variance. The CRDA functions as the planning board for Atlantic City within the tourism district.
The company applying for the variance is Sonraj LLC.
More than 60 cannabis workers at two of Acreage Holdings’ The Botanist locations in New Jersey are joining the United Food and Commercial Workers (UCFCW).
The employees, at Botanist outlets in Atlantic City and Egg Harbor Township, “will join the union upon certification of the agreement,” UFCW Local 152 said in a late Monday news release.
“Representatives from the union then will begin negotiating the first contract on behalf of the new members to ensure their voice is heard at the workplace.”
Kashawn McKinley, director of constituent services for Atlantic City, made the request during a virtual meeting with the Cannabis Regulatory Commission last week, noting that Atlantic City is the convention capital of the East Coast and that the cannabis industry “will be driven by conventions.”
iAnthus Capital Holdings Inc., which owns, operates and partners with regulated U.S. cannabis operations, announced Feb. 3 the closing of its acquisition of 100% of the equity interests of MPX New Jersey LLC, a medical cannabis permit holder in New Jersey.
City officials are already thinking big.
“Big is not even the word to describe it. We are in the position to become the No. 1 cannabis destination on the East Coast,” said Kash McKinley, aide to Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr.
McKinley envisions a city where visitors can access the highest quality marijuana, and later infused edibles if New Jersey eventually allows those sales as well. McKinley cited Small as a driving force in this vision of the city as a leader in the new industry.
Atlantic City, New Jersey officials have closed a members-only cannabis club due to lack of permits, the Press of Atlantic City reports. Michael Walsh, the owner of the Rekt Café told the Press that he had obtained the proper permits prior to the opening but indicated he would take the necessary steps to meet the city’s requirements and reopen as a CBD café under the name “Lifted Café.”
In order to meet the city’s demands, Walsh must paint parking spaces, remove an outdoor tent, and build a wall separating food sales from any cannabis-related activities.