1st Recreational Marijuana Shop In Skokie Planned For Old Orchard

SKOKIE, IL — A vacant bank across the street from the Old Orchard shopping center is the planned location for a recreational marijuana store in Skokie. The two-story, 10,700-square-foot facility could be selling weed to those 21 and over as soon as the spring, according to village records and the co-founder of the country's largest private cannabis company.

Mitch Kahn, chief executive officer of Grassroots Cannabis, said his firm was awaiting building permits to turn the former Bank of America at the northwest corner of Skokie Boulevard and Old Orchard Road into an adult-use cannabis dispensary operating under its Greenhouse brand.

"It is through the process and we should start construction fairly shortly," Kahn told Patch.

Grassroots owns the company that manages Greenhouse, which operates four Illinois medical marijuana dispensaries in Deerfield, Litchfield, Mokena and Morris.

But only the one in Morris is cleared to be able to sell recreational weed when it becomes legal on Jan. 1 under the provision of the Illinois legalization law allowing for "same-site" licenses.

That's because the Mokena Village Board elected to forbid the recreational sale of cannabis within its borders, and the Deerfield Village Board delayed adoption of its zoning ordinance allowing for a single special use permit.

Deerfield trustees last week passed an ordinance requiring a review period of at least 60 days after the adoption of state rules — due to be issued by Dec. 23 — prior to taking effect. That means the village's existing Greenhouse dispensary is unlikely to be able to apply for a permit to also sell to adults without medical cards until the end of February 2020 at the earliest, and may never offer adult-use cannabis or relocate depending on decisions next year by village and state lawmakers.

In Skokie, Greenhouse is eligible for an early recreational dispensary license because the state law also permits the all owners of existing medical dispensaries permission to open up one "second-site" recreational dispensary per medical license in the same metro area.

That means the company can apply for three such licenses in the Chicago area before having to go through the same application process as others seeking licenses, which is scored according to various metrics set by the state.

Grassroots hopes to manage at least two North Shore locations. A plan for a Northbrook dispensary at the corner of Skokie Boulevard and Dundee Road is set to head to village trustees for approval next month. Kahn said construction is anticipated to take two to three months after final village approval.

Greenhouse’s proposed Skokie location would be about seven miles to the south along Route 41.

Kahn, who was in the real estate business before co-founding Greenhouse with fellow Deerfield resident Matt Darin, said both locations are terrific pieces of real estate.

"I'm really excited about it," he said. "We think we're really going to be able to provide really great access for all of the patients and customers on the North Shore with those two sites."

The former Bank of America financial center about a block south of the Wilmette border closed in April 2017, according to Diane Wagner, senior vice president of regional media relations for the bank.

In December 2018, Bank of America sold the property for $3 million to Northpond Capital Partners, according to property records.

Neither Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen nor Village Manager John Lockerby responded to a request for comment about the proposed new business.

But earlier this year, village officials marketed the property at 10000 Skokie Blvd. as a 1-acre redevelopment site with a 10,700-square-foot building.

Village documents list Sam Ankin, co-founder of Northpond, as the property owner and Peter Theodore, of the Des Plaines-based firm Camburas Theodore, as the architect for the dispensary project. Neither have responded to requests for more information about the project.

On Sept. 16, the village board gave final approval to amendments to its village code establishing a scheme to regulate pot shops as a permitted use in Skokie. That means the proposed Greenhouse dispensary would not require a special use permit. The ordinance established Van Dusen, or his designee, as Skokie's "Cannabis Commissioner" and allowed for a maximum of two cannabis retail sales licenses to be issued at any given time.

The village may only issue licenses to those already awarded permits by state regulators, according to the ordinance. Village license fees are $20,000 to start and $5,000 a year after that, and applicants must submit a sworn statement that no one who owns 5 percent or more of the business has ever been convicted of a crime in any jurisdiction.

Zoning and buffer zone requirements meant to keep dispensaries away from schools, parks and each other mean there are few other potential locations for the village's second dispensary — if Greenhouse succeeds in opening along Old Orchard Road — with properties along Touhy Avenue offering the most likely potential sites.

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Chicago-based Grassroots, or GR Companies, describes itself as the largest privately held cannabis company in the country. It was formed when Kahn and Darin, of Greenhouse Group, joined Steve Weisman, of Windy City Cannabis, which has four medical dispensaries in the south and southwest Cook County suburbs of Homewood, Posen, Worth and Justice.

In July, Grassroots announced it had agreed to a sale to Massachusetts-based Curaleaf Holdings for $75 million in cash and $800 million in stock. The merger is currently under antitrust review by the Department of Justice and is expected to be complete by April 2020 following further reviews by state regulators in each of the more than a dozen states where the joint company would operate, according to Kahn. Licenses issued to Greenhouse and Windy City Cannabis are part of the deal. Illinois' cannabis legalization law limits any one entity from possessing more than 10 dispensary licenses.

The only North Shore marijuana dispensary that appears prepared to be open on Jan. 1 is also changing hands.

Even though the all-stock merger between Los Angeles-based MedMen and Chicago-based PharmaCann fell through, PharmaCann agreed to give up its downtown Evanston dispensary as part of the termination agreement, which forgave of about $21 million in debt, among other things.

Evanston has amended its zoning code to allow the dispensary to get a permit to sell recreational weed in the city-owned parking structure in the 1800 block of Maple Avenue. According to a recent submission to city staff, the dispensary will operate under the MedMen brand.

On Nov. 15, Chicago city officials will conduct a lottery to divvy up permits for cannabis retailers. The zoning plan divides the city into seven areas and initially allows for seven shops in each of them. That number doubles in May. Each existing medical dispensary will be permitted to automatically also sell recreational cannabis, limiting the number of new permits that will be up for grabs in areas where medical dispensaries already operate.

Read More:
Illinois Marijuana Dispensary License Applications Unveiled
State Awards First 5 'Same-Site' Cannabis Dispensary Licenses
Illinois Legal Weed: Who Can Buy, Sell, Use Marijuana Next Year?