Crain's New York Archives - Green Market Report

StaffMarch 8, 2023
shutterstock_1309031986.jpg?fit=960%2C540&ssl=1

6min5580

This story was reprinted with permission from Crain’s New York and written by Eddie Small

Marijuana had never been a big part of Brooklyn native Sasha Nutgent’s life. She hadn’t tried the drug before this year and was focused on her musical ambitions growing up, even getting signed to a record label at one point before deciding she was too shy for a pop star’s life.

So her new role running one of the city’s recently opened recreational cannabis stores is still a little hard for her to comprehend.

“I never saw myself working in this industry, and I think that I don’t even know how I got here,” she said. “It floors me every day.”

Photo by Buck Ennis

Nutgent works as the store manager at Housing Works Cannabis Co., which opened to great fanfare on Astor Place in Greenwich Village at the very end of 2022, becoming the first recreational dispensary in the city. Its arrival came a little less than two years after New York joined the growing number of states to have legalized the drug. Despite her initial lack of familiarity with weed, Nutgent has embraced her new job and particularly enjoys serving the diverse array of customers that patronize the store.

These range from locals to tourists to the occasional celebrity, such as former “Late Night With David Letterman” band leader Paul Shaffer, she said. At the store’s grand opening, Nutgent recalled, she saw one man wearing a hard hat decked out with spots for a bong on either side waiting in line next to someone who looked like he had just gotten off work from his corporate job, a stark juxtaposition that made her quite happy.

“That just made me smile,” she said, “to see people from different walks of life just truly enjoy what we sell and have something in common.”

Nutgent has a background in retail and had spent about seven years working at other Housing Works stores, starting in 2015 at its SoHo thrift shop. She was then promoted to manager of its flagship location in Chelsea and also worked at the Park Slope and Gramercy locations before the organization approached her about running its marijuana dispensary. She was nervous about taking the role given how new the industry was, both for her personally and for the city overall. The business is much more heavily regulated than the prior types of retail she’s worked in, but the general idea of customer service being paramount holds true no matter what you’re selling, she said.

Sales are going strong at the store, although the long lines have abated somewhat since it started offering deliveries and online preorders. The city’s retail industry was facing major headwinds even before Covid hit, but marijuana and cosmetics—another sector Nutgent has worked in—will keep going strong even if other sectors falter, she said.

“People are just really excited to be back out again and appreciate that face-to-face experience,” she said. “Things that make people feel good will always have a place to be successful.”

And Nutgent did recently try marijuana herself at a staff appreciation party in mid-January. She has come to find the edible products to be helpful for her anxiety, although smoking pot sparked some uncertainty her first time.

“I think I did it right,” she said. “I honestly don’t know, but I felt good afterward.”


StaffFebruary 1, 2023
Smacked-press-conference-Conner-Roland-9.05-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1

3min8020

This story was republished with permission from Crain’s New York and written by C.J. Hughes.

Because marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, landlords who have mortgages with federally chartered banks would seem potentially at risk by having pot stores as tenants, as doing business with a drug dealer, essentially, runs afoul of the law.

But even though federal officials haven’t said outright that they won’t enforce the law, some landlords seem unfazed, as in Greenwich Village, where the city’s second legal dispensary opened on Jan. 24.

“My only concern is: Is marijuana legal? And is the state of New York behind it? And the answer to both of those questions is yes,” said Herman Gans, an owner of 144 Bleecker St., which is home to the new cannabis shop, Smacked Village.

In 2011 Gans and his co-investors borrowed $6.8 million against the 4-story mixed-use building, which cost $4.2 million in 2001, records show. The lender was New York Community Bank, which is based on Long Island and holds $66 billion in loans for properties across the country.

A message left with the bank asking for an explanation of its position on working with landlords with cannabis-selling tenants was not returned by press time.

Cooper Katz, a broker with ABS Partners Real Estate who handled the Smacked Village deal, said it’s his understanding some financial institutions are advising landlords to tread carefully.

“Some of the banks are saying, ‘We’re OK with it,’ and others are not,” said Katz, who was the fifth agent to market 144 Bleecker, a 5,600-square-foot two-level space that had been empty since a Duane Reade closed in 2019. “But it’s definitely a conversation we’re having.”

If some federal lawmakers have their way, those conversations won’t be necessary for much longer. In 2020 the House of Representatives approved the More Act, which would decriminalize cannabis on a national level. And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said he expects his chamber to take up the bill soon.


Choose Your News

Subscribe to the Green Market Report newsletter that gives you original content delivered straight to your inbox.

 Subscribe

By continuing I agree to your Privacy Policy and consent to receive relevant newsletters and other email communications on events, editorial features, and special partner offers from Green Market Report. I can unsubscribe or change my email preferences at any time.


About Us

The Green Market Report focuses on the financial news of the rapidly growing cannabis industry. Our target approach filters out the daily noise and does a deep dive into the financial, business and economic side of the cannabis industry. Our team is cultivating the industry’s critical news into one source and providing open source insights and data analysis


READ MORE



Recent Tweets

@GreenMarketRpt – 2 days

Body and Mind Reports Slumping Sales as New Dispensaries Come Online

@GreenMarketRpt – 2 days

Planet 13’s Financial Numbers Down Across the Board for 2022, Losses Jump 152%

@GreenMarketRpt – 2 days

Atai Life Sciences Losses Shrunk in 2022 Amid Restructuring Bid

Back to Top

Choose Your News

Subscribe to the Green Market Report newsletter that gives you original content delivered straight to your inbox.

 Subscribe

By continuing I agree to your Privacy Policy and consent to receive relevant newsletters and other email communications on events, editorial features, and special partner offers from Green Market Report. I can unsubscribe or change my email preferences at any time.