Niagara Falls, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Seneca Nation is opening a new marijuana dispensary coming in February of 2023. Construction on the facility is underway and very visible in the shadows of the Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls.
The quickly developing Seneca dispensary is sparking local intrigue as New York's Office of Cannabis Management and elected officials have been claiming to be rolling out new cannabis stores in New York by the end of the year.
The Seneca store will be 2,500-square-feet, a single-story, and will operate under the name, Nativa. In addition to the Nativa Cannabis dispensary, the Nation and Seneca Development are planning to construct a cultivation facility on Seneca territory in the Southern Tier. The 90,000-square-foot building will allow for the initial cultivation footprint to be expanded to accommodate additional future sales demands.
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"Tourists for whom the the ability to purchase marijuana is a value to them, they'll now have an outlet for that here in the City of Niagara Falls. Whether it is with regard to the Seneca's development or whether it's with regard to other licensed operations which we anticipate should occur, certainly over the course of this coming year as the licenses start to come out," said City of Niagara Falls Mayor Rob Restaino.
The City of Niagara Falls sent correspondence to the Office of Cannabis Management earlier this year.
"We sent a proposal to the Office of Cannabis Management and haven't received a response for our proposal. We want to make sure that we're ready and have it in place before the operations and licensing begins. I've also had conversations about potential locations for retail sales," Mayor Restaino said. "I have suggested, because of the tourist trade and because it would be in the best proximity, some of our downtown locations as potential state-licensed locations. Beyond that, there haven't been any other conversations with the Office of Cannabis Management of with the State of New York."
Ever since legislation has been successfully introduced in New York State, elected New York officials like Governor Kathy Hochul and New York Senate Majority Leader, Crystal People-Stokes have been saying that New York should have dispensaries opened by the end of the year. However, just like the process of legalizing cannabis in New York State, the process has been rather slow. Same goes for the process of creating and approving applications for cultivators, processors, and retailers of cannabis. To date, OCM and the Cannabis Control Board have not approved a single Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) license.
Attorney Aleece Burgio, General Counsel and Strategic Advisor for the greenhouse consulting firm, MJI Solutions said OCM representatives say they will have some dispensaries opened by the end of the year, "An OCM rep came out and said that they will, Axel Barnabe, I think we might see one or two, if we're lucky, but they say they're on track."
However, there have been some hindrances, "There's actually a court case that's involved right now that is being brought on by a plaintiff who says that the conditional licenses are a violation of constitutional law and so there has been some, I think, slow play to this rollout for that reason. But overall, the timeline was very expedited. So seeing large scale movement and is very difficult so having one or two is even a huge feat," Burgio says.
Western New York specifically is expected to get 11 conditional adult-use retail dispensaries, "I think we'll see those 11 roll out between now and April," Burgio predicts.
Mayor Restaino says that this push to open dispensaries by the end of the year will be a tall order, "I think that getting a dispensary opened in the City of Niagara Falls by the end of the year, is probably pretty aggressive. So I don't know that I anticipate one being here by the end of the year. Even the Seneca operation is expected to open not until the coming year."