A cannabis dispensary could replace the empty 7-Eleven near the top of the 6 train.
Dragan Ristovski and Edwin Ripoll want to open a recreational dispensary at the 3220 Westchester Ave. location of the shuttered convenience store, which is located between Westchester and Wilkinson avenues. The site has a parking lot and is a short walk from the Pelham Bay Park subway station.
The owners obtained their provisional license through the New York State Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary program, for which applicants either had a prior cannabis conviction in New York state or are related to someone who had one, and have also owned a profitable business for at least two years. Nonprofits with a history of working with the formerly incarcerated are also eligible.
Edwin Ripoll, whose interaction with the justice system qualified the duo for the license, has owned ICU Mobile Detailing, a mobile car wash service, for two years. Ripoll and Dragan Ristovski know each other through a mutual friend and spoke about the opportunity to open a dispensary a couple of years ago, Dragan Ristovski said.
Dragan Ristovski and his wife Elena Ristovski live in Harlem and own restaurants in Manhattan and Brooklyn — Marlow Bistro in Morningside Heights, Cibo e Vino on the Upper West Side and Fandi Mata in Williamsburg, Dragan Ristovski told the Bronx Times.
Dragan Ristovski is overseeing the construction and contracts of their new cannabis venture, Elena Ristovski is overseeing the accounting and community engagement and Ripoll, a Bronxite who is currently on paternity leave as a first-time father, will oversee merchandise, Dragan Ristovski said.
The owners notified Bronx Community Board 10 of their plans on June 16, which is a required step to obtain a full license.
The community board typically would have just 30 days to issue an advisory opinion on the location, but was granted an extension, as the board chose to hold an optional public hearing before voting on the proposed Pelham Bay dispensary. The hearing will be held in-person on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Greek American Institute at 3573 Bruckner Boulevard South.
CB10 District Manager Matthew Cruz told the Bronx Times that board members are keeping an open mind and want to hear from the public, but the issue of unlicensed smoke shops in the area has tainted the topic of dispensaries.
“We’re expecting to hear the public out, take their temperature on this issue,” he said. “We’re certainly not pleased with how many smoke shops have opened who could be and are selling cannabis illegally. We’ve told the applicant that in some ways the illegal smoke shops have undermined the cannabis conversation.”
But legal dispensary owners have tried to use the unlicensed shops as an argument to garner support from communities.
With a legal dispensary coming to the neighborhood, the illicit ones will shut down, which are selling unregulated products to minors, Dragan Ristovski claimed. Licensed dispensaries, on the other hand, are regulated from the time the plant is grown to the time it’s sold.
“Our main, main concern is security, security, security, so I don’t see a reason why they would reject us,” he said.
The dispensary owners plan to renovate the rented space and implement security measures, and expect to open in about three months, Dragan Ristovski told the Bronx Times.
CB10 received an extension through Aug. 16 to notify OCM of their opinion, which buys time to take a vote in case it doesn’t reach a quorum Wednesday night, as board members are usually adjourned over the summer.
If there isn’t a quorum, the hearing will still take place on Wednesday, but the board will be forced to vote at a later meeting.
Statis, the first legal recreational cannabis dispensary in the Bronx, opened on July 6 on East Tremont Avenue in Crotona, though the owners have sent mixed signals over whether they plan to stay in the location or move to Mt. Eden in a few months. Dispensaries planned for Mott Haven and Allerton are also in the works, as reported by the Bronx Times.
Reach Aliya Schneider at aschneider@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4597. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
