Singage for Paint Puff "N" Peace arrived this week at 128 Second Ave. just south of St. Mark's Place...
This is the latest outpost for the cannabis shop, which first opened in East Harlem last fall —and with endorsements via Nick Cannon and Fat Joe, per The City. (Paint Puff 'N' Peace takes the EV space from the Village Dream Tattoo and Piercing shop.)
New York legalized marijuana use last spring. However, as The City points out: "Bureaucratic delays — made worse when Andrew Cuomo resigned as governor in August — have pushed back the timeline by months and the city may not see many (or any) pot establishments open their doors for sales in 2022."
As a workaround in the short-term, businesses offer services such as a curated cannabis concierge service with membership fees, such as at the Empire Cannabis Clubs that opened on Allen Street in January. Higher Empire, which is opening at 71 First Ave. between Fourth Street and Fifth Street, the business is described as a "cannabis club and delivery service."
This Bloomberg CityLab article from last week addresses many of the challenges budding cannabis entrepreneurs are facing...
Like most states, New York's law requires that dispensaries be a certain distance from schools and houses of worship. These and other expected regulatory requirements for where dispensaries can be located pose a particular challenge in dense New York City, where entrepreneurs say some of the neighborhoods with high expected demand — like Harlem and the Lower East Side — offer very limited available space.
And!
The geography puzzle is just one of a number of real estate hurdles for prospective marijuana entrepreneurs, who face a morass of potential regulatory obstacles — and fierce competition. Although New York's Office of Cannabis Management has released some baseline guidance, like the storefront distancing requirements, there are still a lot of unknowns.
Top photo by Steven; second photo by Derek Berg
