Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) – Nearly two months after being one of the first owners in Western New York to finally receiving their recreational marijuana dispensary license, Aaron Van Camp is gearing up to open shop in Downtown Buffalo.
Van Camp plans to open his new dispensary, “Dank” in a few weeks time right in the heart of Downtown Buffalo at 501 Main Street. He couldn’t be happier with how things turned out, especially the location he landed in downtown.
“We’re next to the axe throwers [Hatchets & Hops – Downtown Axe Throwing], we’re on the same block as Fattey Beer, Graylynn, Misuta Chow’s, the people from Savoy are opening and amazing, great space that’s basically on the same block as us but the opposite corner. I can’t wait until the open. I know they’re gonna have ‘Sunday Funday’ going insane over there, it’s gonna be a great time,” said Van Camp during a recent appearance with Brian Mazurowski on WBEN. “It’s a good place. We’re really, really happy to be on that block after it’s all said and done.”
Listen live to WBEN:
It was a long wait for many who applied for their recreational marijuana dispensary license, especially in Western New York. Not only did the process take some time for the State’s Office of Cannabis Management to formalize plans across the state, but a lawsuit filed against the state further pushed the awarding of conditional adult-use recreational dispensary (CAURD) licenses to businesses.
When Van Camp finally got his CAURD license, he felt the jubilation and victory for a brief moment before it was time for him to find a place to set up shop in the region. As it turns out, that process was no easy pickings.
“I find a wonderful building, called the number. ‘No, we can’t rent to you.’ And I was like, ‘Well, why not?’ ‘We’re federally insured, we’ve worked [with] a bank that’s federally insured.’ Any property with a mortgage on it that has any sort of financing, they can’t do it. You don’t really believe them, and you go to the next one and they tell you no, then the next one tells you no,” Van Camp explained. “Then I’m on the news, and now people are calling. Any building that you’d want, they’ll tell you no, but then people start calling with the craziest ideas. ‘I have a broke down old gas station over here. You can get it for $5,000 a month and you need to put $600,000 into it.’ And you’re looking at I’m like, no. We did want to buy, but we’re trying to be first to market. The amount of time it would take us to find somewhere, purchase, do a build out, that was like somewhat bothersome and didn’t seem like it was going to be really time-effective for us.”
Troubles continued for Van Camp in his quest to find a space to set up his dispensary, until he finally found the space owned by Eric Zellner, who also owns EZ Tire and Auto in Tonawanda. Even then, Van Camp says Zellner didn’t really want to rent to them at first.
“We went to meet with him and he was a little skeptical of this, it’s going to cause some problems. We didn’t know, and we started explaining to him why we’re trying to get open so fast,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know, the farmers in New York State are gonna go out of business from this. We have eight retailers, and we only have 250 farmers. There’s 300,000 pounds of excess marijuana, allegedly, in the state, where people were told two years ago – regular farmers, these aren’t drug dealers, these are people who are growing tomatoes that wanted to add a hemp crop to their product just to try and fill some more space to do well – they were told to start growing this marijuana, we’re gonna give you these licenses. People put their life savings into it. … Literally, I go to people’s houses and they cry. They don’t know what they’re going to do.
“He didn’t want to rent to us, I start telling him the story, and he tossed me the keys. I’m just like, ‘What’s going on?’ He was like, ‘I can’t say no to that.’ Like, ‘What do you mean?’ He’s just like, ‘People need you. Go to town.’ He rented to us, and I was just amazed.”
As Van Camp further details, the ones hardest hit by the slowed up process to get CAURD licenses to businesses have been the farmers who agreed to grow the marijuana. Farmers had been given the green light to start growing cannabis way before the licenses started to be distributed throughout the state. They were told by the state stores were going to be up and running across New York by the time the crop is ready, but that didn’t end up being the case.
“I don’t want to call it, ‘lied to’, because no one maliciously set them up for that. But it’s something that happened, and the fact that it happened and they’re really in bad shape now, nothing’s being done for them. It’s something that really has to be done,” Van Camp argued. “I’ve been in talks with people about a grand opening, and they’re asking me, ‘Who should we have cut the ribbon? Who do you want to come down politician wise?’ I don’t feel comfortable having anybody come down, because how am I going to feel having a party, when there’s people losing everything they have? You’re going to take two days out of your life to come and cut a ribbon so you can get a photo op at my store, when you should be in an office figuring out what you’re gonna do for these people, because people are losing everything.”
Van Camp says it’s a tough emotional pill to swallow when he’s a part of business meetings and farmers of the crop describe their dire situation due to the lack of shops opening up. Some farmers are worried they will lose their house as a result.
The only solution, at this point, to help these farmers out is getting the licensed marijuana dispensaries opened across Western New York.
One of the reasons for the concerns with famers and others who have signed up for the state’s cannabis program is the constant altering of the system.
“The newest deals is they’re lending the money at a 10% rate, which is worse than a mortgage. If I borrow $1 million from you, I owe you $2.4 [million] in 10 years. That’s a predatory loan,” Van Camp said. “The state’s offering predatory loans to people for this. Their numbers are worse than I’m getting from people in Michigan that want to give me money. I’m being hit by a million predatory lenders everywhere that want a piece of this. But the state’s numbers are worse than people who are supposed to be the scum of the Earth that are out there preying on people, and the state has worse numbers, as far as lending goes right now.
“If they come up with that money, that is a source to do it, they have to really pop these people open. I don’t know if they’re staffed to distribute the money well, but that’s their only chance is trying to put together this money and get the people open. Or something that doesn’t work out for me, just open up licensing and let the corporation’s come in, or let anybody open up that can and really get it going. The farmers are in trouble, they’re in deep trouble. If they don’t do something for them quick, it’s going to be catastrophic for a lot of people.”
With the days continuing to dwindle away and final preparations being made for opening day, Van Camp admits he doesn’t know what to expect when the doors open for business. This includes security measures to make sure no one is trying to take advantage of the shop.
“We have a set of security guidelines that we’re following, as far as a vaulted system. We’ve got like a bulletproof film on all the windows. Although you would be able to crack the window, you’re not coming through,” Van Camp said. “We’re going to have two Buffalo Police Officers, off duty, at all times. I understand the concerns of the landlord and maybe even the consumer, but we’re providing an insanely safe environment there.”
Van Camp has support from many in the community ahead of his shop opening, including the politicians that represent the area.
“Joel Feroleto and Mitch [Nowakowski] from the [Buffalo] Common Council have bent over backwards to help us out down there,” Van Camp said. “It was very tough, at first, but I got very lucky to slide into a place downtown at 501 Main. Just very, very lucky to be there.”
