A 10,000-square-foot weed shop minutes away from Wrigley Field just opened in a former John Barleycorn bar.
Cresco Labs, a wholesaler of branded cannabis products, opened its flagship Sunnyside dispensary at 3524 North Clark Street on Monday, Chicago Sun Times reported. It’s 10 times the size than Cresco’s former medical marijuana dispensary, which it operated before the state legalized recreational use last year.
The shop “will better accommodate our existing patients and consumers and act as a showcase for the millions of visitors to the Wrigleyville neighborhood each year,” Cresco CEO Charlie Bachtell said in a statement. It has 21 registers and offers products to casual users and medical marijuana patients alike that include smokable flowers, marijuana vapes and infused beverages.
An aerial showing the dispensary’s location in relation to Wrigley Field (Google Maps)
It opened two months after the Chicago City Council passed a contested proposal to ease zoning requirements for cannabis businesses. The measure allows marijuana businesses to open stores where manufacturing operations are allowed without having to participate in a zoning lottery for approval.
As of September 2021, Chicago had 18 dispensaries of the 110 operations that opened in Illinois after recreational use was legalized. Recreational pot sales in Illinois topped $1.12 billion as of October, surpassing last year’s sales by about 40 percent.
The former dispensary, at 3812 North Clark Street, will be repurposed as the Illinois Cannabis Education Center early next year. The center will help minority cannabis entrepreneurs launch careers.
Cresco operates 10 retail locations in Illinois and has 30 dispensaries in Florida, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Arizona.
[Chicago Sun Times] — Connie Kim