CHCIAGO — A hashish agency with deep ties to metropolis authorities cannot legally observe via on its plan to maneuver a Norwood Park dispensary to the positioning of the previous Rainforest Cafe on the Close to North Facet.

Palatine-based Progressive Therapy Options, or PTS Corp., first notified town’s zoning administrator of its plans final December, setting in movement the method for searching for the required particular use allow from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

PTS, which at present operates 4 Devour dispensaries and a cultivation middle in Illinois, needs to maneuver a dual-use pot store from 6428 N. Milwaukee Ave. to 605 N. Clark St., which beforehand housed the colourful Rainforest Cafe till it closed amid the pandemic in August 2020. Block Membership Chicago first reported on the corporate’s effort to relocate.

Nevertheless, the plan seems to be a non-starter with out adjustments to state regulation.

A dispensary cannot open inside 1,500 toes of an current pot store until it is owned by a so-called social fairness applicant, in accordance with Chris Slaby, a spokesman for the Illinois Division of Monetary and Skilled and Regulation.

There are a minimum of three dispensaries that seem like inside that distance. PTS, one of many unique companies to get approval to promote pot in Illinois, doesn’t have social fairness standing, a designation created to diversify the white-dominated weed enterprise.

Dispensaries that promote medical and leisure weed, like Devour in Norwood Park, can also’t legally transfer exterior their designated medical district, Slaby mentioned. However PTS would wish to just do that to maneuver to the shuttered Rainforest Cafe constructing.

Hashish agency faucets Terry Peterson as CEO

The corporate’s newly-installed chief govt is Terry Peterson, a former seventeenth Ward alderman who has held numerous roles in metropolis authorities. Peterson served as an aide to former Mayor Richard M. Daley, led the Chicago Housing Authority and was chairman of the Chicago Transit Authority’s board.

Peterson is Black, which is extraordinarily uncommon amongst hashish executives at companies at present promoting marijuana in Illinois. A latest IDFPR report confirmed that just one African American had an possession stake in a dispensary over the previous two years.

PTS has additionally been led partly by David Flood, a businessman whose household owns Flood Brothers Disposal, a trash-hauling firm that has held profitable contracts with metropolis businesses. Flood beforehand served because the treasurer and principal officer of the influential and deep-pocketed Medical Hashish Alliance of Illinois, which is now often known as the Hashish Enterprise Affiliation of Illinois.

State data present PTS and Devour have donated a minimum of $139,500 to state lawmakers, and PTS at present has two high-powered lobbyists engaged on its behalf in Springfield though it is unclear whether or not any change can be made to the space requirement throughout this legislative session.

In Chicago, hashish has remained a charged difficulty for years. As many individuals of colour have successfully been shut out of the trade, alderpersons have sought methods to speed up the state’s variety efforts – with marginal success.

Ald. Brendan Reilly, whose forty second Ward contains the outdated Rainforest Cafe, did not reply to a request for touch upon PTS’ proposed transfer. His spouse works at a Sunnyside dispensary owned by Cresco Labs and positioned at 436 N. Clark St., which seems to be lower than 1,500 toes from PTS’ desired location.

There’s additionally a PharmaCann Verilife dispensary at 60 W. Superior St. and Ascend’s MOCA dispensary at 216 W Ohio St.

Though three state-run lotteries named the winners of 185 permits that would represent the subsequent spherical of pot outlets in Illinois, a Cook dinner County decide’s order continues to dam their issuance. However, a number of the winners have begun searching for zoning approval in Chicago.

A kind of firms, GRI Holdings, additionally has appreciable clout and connections to the state’s early medical hashish trade and can also be searching for to open a store within the space as soon as the authorized points are resolved.

The corporate’s registered managers embody restaurant mogul Phil Stefani; former high-ranking Chicago cop Thomas Wheeler Jr. and John Trotta, the CTA’s former vp of buying and warehousing. Ashley Barry, the previous director of operations for the Illinois Home Republican Group, can also be serving as GRI’s neighborhood outreach coordinator.

All through the applying course of, GRI was guided by two consultants with shut ties to Springfield: Ross Morreale, the co-founder of one of many state’s extremely profitable marijuana cultivation websites and brother-in-law of former state Rep. Michael McAuliffe (R-Chicago), and Jay Stewart, a former director of the Illinois Division of Monetary and Skilled Regulation, the company that may difficulty the brand new pot store licenses.

GRI earned social fairness standing by hiring a workforce of a minimum of six those who meet numerous necessities, like dwelling in an space that is been harmed by the drug warfare or having an expugnable hashish arrest or conviction.

GRI intends to arrange store inside The Blanc, a condominium and retail area positioned at 612 N. Wells St. that is apparently lower than 1,500 toes from the previous Rainforest Cafe. They utilized for zoning approval earlier this yr.

(Source: Solar-Instances Media Wire – Copyright Chicago Solar-Instances 2021.)