A multi-story, green-and-white sign reading “Con Bud” is being erected over the facade of 85 Delancey St. on the Lower East Side, where Coss Marte plans to open his marijuana dispensary.
Marte put down a $420,000 deposit on a 10-year lease in the building and is on the hook for $38,000 a month in rent starting Oct. 1. He’s in the process of moving his nearby gym, Conbody, above the planned dispensary to create a co-branded space for both businesses.
Con Bud in the Lower East Side.
Courtesy of Coss Marte
For Marte, who served six years in prison for selling marijuana and other drugs, the chance to sell weed legally was “an unbelievable dream.” But he is now one of hundreds of entrepreneurs statewide whose plans have been put on hold indefinitely due to an injunction issued last month by a state Supreme Court judge against New York’s Conditional Adult Use Dispensary (CAURD) program.
Gothamist spoke to half a dozen CAURD license holders about what they have at stake. Some have borrowed money from family members, put down hefty deposits on real estate and inked expensive contracts while putting their personal finances and other businesses on the line.
Between contracts for construction, security, marketing, inventory and other services, Marte and his two partners have invested about $1 million so far into getting their cannabis business off the ground, according to court filings. He also has a baby on the way.
Marte and his two partners have invested about $1 million so far … He also has a baby on the way.
“I’m going to be forced to probably sue the state if I can’t open up before October,” Marte said in an interview last week. “Now, I’m in a nightmare.”
New York’s CAURD program was designed as quasi-reparations for the War on Drugs with the first dispensary licenses going to those with past marijuana convictions and their family members. Both state officials and participants in the program repeatedly talked about the opportunity legal cannabis…
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