New York's First Cannabis Retail Showroom Opens in The Bronx
Bronx Community Foundation and partners open three-day retail dispensary experience with workforce development and educational programming
Written by Zac Roy, Community Contributor, Article originally appeared in Patch
Yesterday The Bronx Community Foundation and the Bronx Borough President’s Office, announced the opening of “The Bronx Dispensary Showroom” - a first-of-its-kind compliant cannabis retail pop-up experience in the Bronx. The three-day event will feature an end-to-end cannabis retail dispensary education experience, a workforce development fair, and community groups, and professionals providing technical training and education on social equity, advocacy, and opportunities in one of the fastest-growing industries in the world - the cannabis industry.
"Built on a promise of social equity, New York’s cannabis industry presents an opportunity to bring jobs and build generational wealth in our Bronx community that suffered profoundly from cannabis prohibition," said Desmon Lewis, Co-Founder of The Bronx Community Foundation. "To help ensure that promise is fulfilled, The Bronx Community Foundation is committed to providing educational and workforce development resources through initiatives like The Bronx Dispensary Showroom. We’re grateful for the support of numerous community partners, elected officials, and partners within the Cannabis industry.”
The cannabis industry will be one of the largest small business-generating industries in New York— supporting up to 24,000 jobs within three years and producing nearly $1.3 billion in sales. Despite this potential, the representation of communities disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs needs to be addressed in one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. The Bronx showroom experience will highlight how cannabis can serve as a generational wealth-building opportunity that gives underserved communities, and communities of color, access to equitable resources and the tools they need to succeed.
“Opening and operating a successful business is always challenging, but even more so in a brand new industry with complex regulations," said Howell Miller, a CAURD applicant from The Bronx. "This showroom space and training sessions are critical resources for prospective cannabis business owners like me because they show us what the State of New York requires for the layout and back-of-house operation of a compliant dispensary.”
The cannabis retail pop-up experience includes:
A Compliant Adult Use Cannabis Retail Dispensary Showroom: a dispensary showroom experience built by Temeka Group, one of the 10 firms awarded by DASNY to design and build New York Adult-Use Retail Cannabis Dispensaries. Compliant technology provided by Dutchie and partners KayaPush, Sapphire Risk, The Peak Beyond, Lucid Green, Point Seven Group, LeafLink, and New York Cannabis Project. Cannabis retail dispensary experience reviewed by Vicente Sederberg LLP for compliance using The Marihuana Regulation & Taxation Act (MRTA), Office of Cannabis Management (“OCM”) Guidance, and draft adult-use cannabis regulations proposed by the OCM as of November 20 (collectively, the “Regulatory Authority”).
Workforce development: Training and a speaker series of state and local elected officials, community groups and professionals providing education on social equity, advocacy and opportunities in the industry led by NYSC Connect.
Equitable resources: A vendor showcase with a collection of free resources available to the community (e.g. expungement clinic, business license setup, workforce resume assistance, etc.), including Cannabis Workforce Initiative.
Community and advocacy groups: Cannabis NYC (NYC Department of Small Business Service), All That Jive NYC, TakeRoot Justice, 1Freedom, CannaBronx (a project of Mothers on the Move) and YOUNGWOO & ASSOCIATES ("YWA") to offer a wide array of services and resources for the community.
