Hamilton gets a second legal pot shop

Applicant for government-sanctioned marijuana retail outlet has reached public feedback stage of process

Yorkregion.com
March 15, 2019
Teviah Moro

A second application for a legal marijuana retail outlet in Hamilton has reached the provincial government's authorization stage.

The prospective operator of Hello Cannabis Store hopes to open at 57 Cootes Dr., a small commercial plaza in Dundas.

If approved, the west end store, along with Canna Cabana Hamilton at the Centre on Barton in the east end, would book end the city with two government-sanctioned cannabis retail outlets.

Santino J. Coppolino is listed on the Alcohol and Gaming Commission's website as the applicant behind Hello Cannabis Store. He couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

But Steven Fry, the applicant behind Canna Cabana, said he welcomes the competition.

"I think it's a good distance away and I think it creates healthy competition for the Hamilton market."

Coppolino's proposed locale once served as Liberal MPP Ted McMeekin's campaign office and is next to The Beer Store.

An affiliated Hello Cannabis medicinal cannabis clinic operates in the neighbouring plaza.

The Progressive Conservatives aim to have Ontario's first legal cannabis retailers open for business by April. They have limited the number to 25 initially, citing a short supply of legal weed.

Hamilton is part of the AGCO's West Region, which the government has capped at seven retail outlets. The Niagara Herbalist in St. Catharines and Central Cannabis in London already have two of those licences.

The province says cannabis stores can't be located within 150 metres of a school and must abide by existing commercial mixed-use zoning rules.

The public comment period for the Dundas application ends March 27. The public can offer feedback for the Centre on Barton application until March 23.

When those periods end, the AGCO will provide the applicants with copies of the submissions. They'll have five days to respond.

There are other steps before they can open, however, including a site inspection and securing a $50,000 letter of credit.

Preparing the application and opening his business at the Centre on Barton has been hectic, Fry said. "It's been countless hours, evenings, weekends. It's been a mad dash to the finish line."

The McMaster business graduate figures he'll have sunk about $1 million into the effort once the roughly 2,500-square-foot space is renovated and ready to open.

At one time, Hamilton's market supported more than 80 dispensaries. Last week, police said they'd cut them down to 14, but are now challenged by "pop-up" vendors that set up for a spell and then vacate the premises.

Two legal shops won't even make a "dent" on Hamilton's black market, says Barry Davidson of David Hyde and Associates, an Ancaster-based security and licensing consulting firm in the regulated cannabis sector.

"I think it's going to create a rock chip," said Davidson, who noted he has a background in criminology.

He said Ontario is "years away" from sidelining the black market in "significant numbers," but legal shops will give people a chance to experience a regulated retail environment.

The cannabis market needs to recreate itself much like craft beer and whisky entrepreneurs have done in recent years, he suggested. "Will we achieve it? I absolutely believe we will."