(Google Maps)
A building on 82nd and Broadway will be getting three new tenants – The Real Deal reports – one of which will be the Upper West Side’s third legal weed spot (unless another one opens even sooner).
Advertisement
Wells Fargo, Spear Physical Therapy and Grape Stomper Cannabis House have reportedly signed 10-12 year leases at 2273-2279 Broadway, listing broker Retail By Mona told the publication. The spaces total 13,600 square feet, representing “the entire retail portion of the building.” The spaces were asking $375 per square foot (per year), which means that if the landlords got the prices they were seeking, they’ll be collecting $5.1 million in annual rent.
In April, Just a Little Higher opened at 157 West 72nd Street (replacing Goodwill) and Flower Power opened at 22 West 66th Street. It’s unclear when Grape Stomper will open, but currently, there are close to 60 stores you can buy black market grass from, according to Council Member Gale Brewer’s list of unauthorized retailers.
The new tenants will be replacing NeXa Studios (which has since moved to 50 West 72nd Street), Mattress Firm and Santander Bank.
Spear Physical Therapy has additional Upper West Side locations at 2465 Broadway, 235 West 75th Street and 11 West 67th Street, according to its website.
Let the legal dispensaries open and drive out the black market ones! Just like the influx of froyo and salad bars, this trend will soon even out
The smell stinks, worst than cigarettes. It lingers and causes new breathing problems to the residents. We need a greener city back. Cannabis will make the climate issue worse. We need to protect our earth and stop smoking anything in the open!
The landlord and the realtors must be help accountable . Would they lease a space to an unlicensed liquor store? Of course not, because they would be liable. Just one more NYC disaster. So sad
Legal dispensaries make the neighborhood safer. 1. Once open, OCM must enforce the “proximity protection” around the licensed store by shutting down the local illegal stores (already happening around 72nd – 66th streets). 2. Each product sold is tested (click on the QR code for the Certificate of Analyses) for most contaminants (presently mold testing is waived), etc. and all products have an expiration date. 3. Prices are more expensive so the clientele is generally of a higher quintile and more price elastic than those at the illegal stores (substantially little risk of folks buying at a legal store and then reselling on the street to under age kids). 4. OCM mandates safety standards (including bank-quality video cameras inside and outside and a door security guard — a deterrent to sidewalk crime); minimum signage and street visibility (so not an attractive nuisance to those under 21). 5. customers must have a government form of ID and be 21 or older (legit stores scan at the door and at the cashier using same tech as a bar).
FWIW – NYS is holding tenants and landlord’s accountable. The fines for a retailer selling illegal weed is $10,000/day and $20,000/day after notice to cease. See May 23, 2024 article — retailers “I’m Stuck” and “Weed Warehouse” received a “$15 million fine for 7 unlicensed cannabis dispensaries in upstate New York” https://cnycentral.com/news/local/15-million-fine-for-7-unlicensed-cannabis-dispensaries-in-upstate-new-york
Is there one master Weed retail overlord that grabs these empty storefronts for business? They do it so easily and with kitsch – silly, over the top aesthetics and lighting, bad fonts, 1980s glass counter tops. All looking exactly the same. Staffed and stocked with brazen homogeneity.