Joseph Abramov opened his cannabis dispensary, Urban Leaf, last month in an unassuming 1,300-square-foot Midtown storefront formerly occupied by Murphy’s Pub at 977 Second Avenue. It’s one of 127 dispensaries now operating legally across New York state, with over 100 more on their way pending approval of their conditional adult-use retail dispensary license.
The first thing to know about building out a dispensary in New York is there are a lot of rules, Abramov said. Most retail listings are immediately off the table because they are in buildings with federally insured mortgages, which bars businesses that are illegal in the eyes of the feds. Of the few that remain, you can rule out many more because they are too close to a school or a religious institution.
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Once you do find a space, state-licensed dispensaries need to keep a lower profile, unlike illegal smokeshops that tend to announce themselves with giant cannabis leaf insignia emblazoned on the store’s facade and neon green signs. Legal dispensaries cannot display products in their windows and no logos are allowed outside their stores, according to regulations the state Office of Cannabis Management drew