ALBANY — The city’s first retail cannabis store may open along upper Central Avenue.
Albany received word from the state Dormitory Authority that it was looking to place a cannabis store for one of the seven license holders in the Capital Region at 997 Central Ave. The information was included in an email sent to the Upper Washington Neighborhood Association by the city’s Chief Equity Officer Jasmine Higgins.
Higgins is leading the city’s efforts to determine what legalized cannabis sales will look like in the city.
Higgins said there was no immediate timeline for when the shop would open.
The retail dispensary owner will still need to obtain building permits from the city and go through the Planning Board scrutiny. The site is zoned “mixed-use community highway,” which means the owner will need to obtain a conditional use permit from the Planning Board under the city’s zoning for marijuana dispensaries.
Additionally, the project will need a minor Development Plan Review and Lot Modification, according to Higgins.
The city has held a number of public meetings as it seeks to determine the rules by which dispensaries will operate. The city’s Cannabis Advisory Committee is expected to send its recommendations to Mayor Kathy Sheehan and the Common Council for review in the coming weeks. Any changes the committee recommends to the city’s zoning code require Common Council approval before being implemented.
The store is expected to be the second in the Capital Region to open and the fourth in upstate New York as two other license holders ramp up their plans to offering delivery services.
Local musician-producer Joshua Mirsky said his team at Stage One Cannabis LLC are preparing a site across the river at 810 Broadway in Rensselaer. The group has submitted its final paperwork to the state Office of Cannabis Management and is working on finalizing its banking operations.
Mirsky said the Rensselaer site, which is a former bank, will start off with a delivery service while the company finishes its building out the interior to open up retail sales. The hope is to start delivery services by early May and open the door to retail sales in mid-June, he said.
The group had looked at locations in Albany, but Mirsky said they found it easier to open a space in Rensselaer.
Matthew Robinson, one of the other four license holders initially approved by the state for the Capital Region, said he is still focused on getting a delivery service up and running before opening a brick-and-mortar location.
Donald Andrews, the owner for 10 years of a Schenectady smoke shop, won approval earlier this year from both city and state officials to operate a marijuana retail shop out of his own storefront at 1613 Union St. in Schenectady. Andrews plans to open his shop on April 1.
Earlier this month, the state Office of Cannabis Management announced that it would double the statewide number of conditional retail store licenses to 300.
