Illinois issues first two social equity marijuana dispensary licenses, and one shop expected to open soon in River North

Illinois has issued its first two social equity marijuana dispensary licenses, and at least one of them is expected to open by next week in Chicago’s River North area.

Green Rose Dispensary is soon to open on the site of the old Carson’s Ribs restaurant at Ontario and Wells streets, one of the most prominent locations in the city. The state also issued a license to open to Ivy Hall, a boutique dispensary in Wicker Park, but it has not announced when it will open.

“We’re excited to open this dispensary,” said co-owner Thomas Wheeler Jr., a former Chicago police detective commander. “It’s elegant and unique.”

The wealthy and connected owners of Green Rose — GRI Holdings, Inc., — also include restaurateur Phil Stefani and former CTA executive John Trotta. Consultants on the project were Ross Morreale, co-founder of downstate Ataraxia cultivation center, and Jay Steward, former head of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which controls marijuana licensing for the state.

GRI qualified for the state’s social equity designation, which comes with bonus points for license applications, by hiring at least six employees who qualify for social equity by coming from neighborhoods with high rates of poverty or marijuana arrests, or who had prior minor cannabis convictions.

Critics have called for eliminating that method of qualifying for social equity, as was done in one lottery for licenses, and instead want diversity in ownership. Wheeler Jr. said GRI’s ownership and management team includes himself, an African American. Two-thirds of the management team is African American or Latino, including CEO Gabriel Martinez, a Latino developer. Plus, there are women and LGBTQ staff members.

“We’re committed to diversity,” he said.

Green Rose ownership is 15% Latino and 2.5% African American, while Ivy Hall is 61% Black-owned, state officials said.

The recreational dispensary is among 192 new conditional licenses that the state has issued. While a few others are nearing completion, many minority owners said they have had huge difficulties getting financing to open for business.

Shortly after the Green Rose news broke Thursday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced a new $8.75 million forgivable loan program for social equity cannabis license holders. The program is meant to simplify and speed up the process to give loans to marijuana startups.

License holders had complained that the previous loan process, which went through two private companies, was too slow in granting loans, and as a result, many companies were unable to get off the ground.

Under the new program, craft growers may get up to $500,000, infusers up to $250,000, and transporters up to $50,000. Without explanation, the program announcement did not include dispensaries.

Tyrone Muhammad, founder of Ex-Cons for Community and Social Change, objected that most of the GRI owners were white, wealthy males, typical of the industry as a whole.

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The point of social equity programs, he said, was to broaden ownership to include people most harmed by the war on drugs, typically Black men, who were incarcerated at a far higher rate than whites despite similar rates of use.

He called for including more Black owners, or selling their products, such as his Support Your Local Weed Man hemp-derived products.

“That’s tokenism,” he said. “They have to be more proactive in fixing the damage.”

Green Rose will feature automated ordering kiosks as well as budtenders, a counter for online orders only, and perhaps most important, a location in the busy River North neighborhood with a free parking lot.

It will also feature a spacious, unique, inviting design, Wheeler Jr. said, with an outdoor mural to be added later.

Wheeler Jr., who grew up in Chicago’s Roseland Heights neighborhood, is chief security officer for the store. The position marks a career turnaround for the former officer, since recreational cannabis sales were legalized in Illinois effective in 2020, though they remain federally illegal.

“I feel good because it’s legal now,” he said. “I can switch gears too. I know how good and well-regulated the products are. It gives me peace of mind.”