Two New Cannabis Dispensaries Are Coming To Lenox Hill

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Lenox Hill is getting lit up by two new legal dispensaries. One aims to take over a former "dark retail" space on First Avenue, and another seeks a mid-block location formerly occupied by an East 73rd Street cigar bar.

Both presented their plans in a Community Board 8 meeting Tuesday night — with one applicant facing hours of grilling from concerned neighbors.

"There will be so much smoking on the street, you cannot even imagine," said a local named Valerie. "I am highly opposed to this."

Despite the pushback, the Community Board 8 voted to approve two applications for dispensaries on East 73rd Street and First Avenue, in the former home of shuttered cigar bar Casa de Montecristo, and Weeds Are Us on First Avenue and East 61st Street.

Both shops are entering an uncertain cannabis industry climate after an upstate judge reversed a ruling in late August that could threaten future store openings.

Here's what happened with each proposal:

WhiteboxTHC LLC

Co-owner Wei Hu presented plans forward plans to open by November a new dispensary at 334 East 73rd St., where legal weed can be bought but not consumed.

WhiteBoxTHC was able to file as a justice applicant because one of its three owners served nearly one and a half years in jail for felony cannabis possession, Hu said.

Security will include a bouncer checking ID cards and on-site security cameras, Hu said.

Neighbors spent hours raising concerns that included secondhand smock, increased traffic, double parking and property crime on a residential block, which is why local Marc Maurizi said he'd prefer to see the dispensary on the avenue.

While Hu argued the space was pretty close to First Avenue, another neighbor said close wasn't good enough.

"There is at least 2-300 feet...of distance," the local said. According to Google Maps, the distance from the proposed location to the corner is around 165 feet.

Valerie, who said she lives directly across from the site, complained of the stogies smoked al fresco when the cigar bar claimed the space.

"This is a residential street," she said. "You can't control what people do when they leave your establishment."

Valerie adding that the shop should at least not be allowed to operate until 11 p.m.

Though the block is mostly residential, it also is home to a laundromat, massage parlor and the restaurant Bohemian Spirit, which operates inside the Czech Consulate until 11 p.m. six nights a week.

Hu, a former lawyer at the city's Department of Social Services, said he will hire staff to ensure customers don't loiter and smoke.

"We want to operate, we want to be good neighbors," Hu said, drawing various distinctions between their shop and the ubiquitous illicit shops. "If people smoke in front of our place, we lose our license."

Others expressed concerns that Hu and his co-owners neglected to reach out to residents and block associations prior to the meeting, for which Hu expressed his regret.

"We're going to have very tight security," said Michael, another co-owner. "Other [legal] dispensaries aren't having a big crime problem."

When another neighbor echoed outdoor smoking concerns, co-owner Dominick Cuffaro said, "Your problem is here already."

"We didn't cause it, it's there, it's coming from the illegal market," Cuffaro added. "We want to hear your concerns and we want to do the best we can to operate in a very calm, clean, nice manner."

The hours-long fracas also included testimony from a handful of neighbors who spoke out in favor of the new establishment, one who could not wait to cut her legal bud commute to Union Square.

Read More: Legal Weed In NYC: Here's The Recreational Dispensary List

Another argued liquor license disputes seldom became so heated.

"Every criticism I've heard from my neighbors," said the East 72nd Street father of two, "you could say the same exact thing about tobacco or alcohol."

Community Board 8 chair Russell Squire said it sounded like "there's some sort of latent concern about whether this should be legalized at all."

"It sounds like people are sort of thinking that the patrons of this establishment are basically criminals, and that it's bringing a criminal element to the neighborhood. And that's wrong," Squire said.

Squire added that the concerns over illegal pot shops being robbed, who lack security and deal their illegal wares in cash, are a false comparison.

Legal dispensaries have strict requirements governing safety and security, and because they can legally bank their proceeds, that means they have much less cash on hand at any given moment compared to the black market businesses, the store owners said.

"Nobody is saying that because pharmacies were getting ripped off all the time, that nobody can have a CVS open on their block," Squire said. "It's just not an argument that we apply in any other context."

After Hu and the other co-owners agreed to change their closing time from 11 p.m. to 10 p.m., the committee voted to approve the application, 7-3.

Weeds Are Us (1115 First Ave.)

About 10 blocks south on First Avenue, two best friends and longtime business partners are looking to operate a dispensary filled with security personal, cameras and waiting rooms. And lots of workers ready to sell you legal weed.

Jak Eisakharian and Joshua Ahl presented their application to open Weeds Are Us, a play on the bankrupt former national toy store chain, Toys R Us — although Eisakharian said they changed the name slightly to avoid brand, or legal, confusion — on First Avenue near East 61st Street in mid-October.

Eisakharian described the 2,500-square-foot location — a former mattress store and more recently a "dark retail" shop — as having about 30 cameras with facial recognition, as well as several security guards.

To purchase from the dispensary, visitors will have to present their ID's to a first security guard outside a double-locked door leading to a waiting room. A second security guard will be sitting between the waiting area and the actual retail space and will perform a second ID check.

"We're not planning to have such a big busy traffic area and we will try to control traffic as best as we can with a waiting area," Eisakharian said.

Inside the actual retail space, only 10-25 customers will be allowed at a time, Eisakharian said. And when customers go to purchase their pot, their ID's will be checked for a third time.

Weeds Are Us will provide delivery, Eisakharian said, but only by foot or manual bicycle and there will not be onsite consumption. The store plans to employ at least 60 people.

The pair, who first met in middle school, were in a car together 20 years ago when cops arrested them for weed possession.

Because Ahl had the lone gram of weed the pair had just purchased in his pocket, he spent the night in jail and quickly paid a $100 fine and pled guilty in an attempt to hide it from his family, Eisakharian said at the meeting.

"I fought it and did community service," said Eisakharian. "I guess it was a blessing in disguise," he said of the arrests, which allowed them to apply as justice applicants.

Eisakharian and Ahl both have a background in real estate, and Ahl's family has been the long-time operator of the NYPD's Bronx shooting range.

That lifetime of experience around law enforcement means that Ahl, Eisakharian said, "knows almost every single police officer in the state."

"My mother-in-law is a sergeant in Brooklyn. My father-in-law is a retired detective. My uncle is a detective," Eisakharian added, as he assuaged a committee member's question about their relationship to the local precinct.

Eisakharian said they had already spoken to all of the business owners on the block, including the illegal smoke shop directly next store to their future spot, informing him that officials would be quick to eliminate the threat to their tax income.

"His question to me is: 'how long do I have?' and 'can I get a job with you?'" Eisakharian said.

The committee voted to approve the application 8-1.