Category: Commercial Real Estate

Reported by WABC7 in New York: On Tuesday, New York City’s hundreds of smoke shops received notice that they might be forced to leave for selling marijuana illegally. The first licensed dispensaries started operating in recent weeks, and since then, according to city officials, there have been a lot of unlicensed, illegal stores that sell cannabis-related products. According to estimates from the authorities, there are currently 1,400 marijuana-related businesses operating illegally in the five boroughs. District Attorney for Manhattan Alvin Bragg stated on Tuesday that “not just anyone can sell just because it’s legal.” About 400 smoke shops received letters from Bragg warning them of possible eviction proceedings for selling cannabis illegally. A law that mandated evictions of commercial tenants engaged in unlicensed cannabis sales was cited in the DA’s letter. Mayor Eric Adams joined Bragg and said, “You can’t just open a shop.” He also disclosed four enforcement measures taken by the city. On Tuesday, the sheriff’s department raided a store in Greenwich Village while being covered by Eyewitness News cameras. Despite the fact that this was an illegal store, investigators took pictures and seized items while standing beneath the neon sign reading Cannabis Dispensary. The mayor claimed that unregulated smoke shops frequently sell goods laced with other drugs and have turned into robbery hotspots.

References

Cracking down on NYC’s illegal marijuana dispensaries amid spike in crime. (2023, February 7). ABC7 New York, https://abc7ny.com/smoke-shops-nyc-marijuana-illegal-marijunana-sales/12780878/

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Tuesday that retail owners must evict tenants who sell marijuana without a license.  New York plans to evict the tenants of a store selling illegal marijuana, Mayor Eric Adams and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Tuesday. The shops in Manhattan that sell cannabis without a license face eviction, in addition to fines of up to $5,000 and confiscation of their products. According to the release, the Bragg office has already sent letters to more than 400 illegal smokehouses in the area. In the coming weeks, the DA’s office said it will begin notifying landlords that they must begin eviction proceedings — and may even issue its own eviction notices against tenants if landlords don’t act within five days. 

“If owners and landlords do not initiate  eviction proceedings against these delinquent tenants  in a timely manner, or do not follow through diligently, my office is prepared to take over and pursue eviction proceedings,” Bragg said at a news conference.  The city  also filed four lawsuits Tuesday against East Village smoke shops  for illegal sales and  public nuisance, Crain’s reported. The  landlords of the shops were also named as defendants.  The city has issued 66 retail cannabis licenses to stores so far, and Bragg’s office plans to make it a priority to evict illegal shops operating near licensed stores, Commercial Observer reports. Only two so far – Housing Works Cannabis Co. at 750 Broadway and Smacked at 1 Bleecker Street are open. 

Meanwhile, there are about 1,400 unlicensed shops selling cannabis in Manhattan alone, said Borough President Mark Levine.   “You can’t just open a store and sell marijuana,” Adams said. “There are rules and we have to actually follow them.”  The threat of shop leases is the city’s latest attempt to crack down on illegal smoke shops. NYC launched a task force late last year that visited 53 stores over 11 days in late November and early December, but later inspected only five the City reported. Both shops revisited by the task force were full of illegal cannabis between inspections.  Although this latest effort is focused only on Manhattan, Adams said the borough plans to share the results of the program with other districts.  “We want to give New York’s legal cannabis market a fair chance to succeed,” Bragg said. “I hope to see full cooperation between building owners and commercial property owners to implement this education and criminal justice strategy.”

On Thursday, December 30, 2022 several smoke shops were raided in Hell’s Kitchen. Police left one store with several clear bags and loaded a police van. Stores that were not raided quickly closed for the evening.

The City reported on New York City Patch.com:

On Thursday evening, about two and a half hours after the Housing Works store opened its doors, a journalist with THE CITY happened to see city Sheriff’s officers, accompanied by NYPD officers, raiding a store on Ninth Avenue off 45th Street and leaving with trash bags full of merchandise.

The Sheriff’s Office, which operates as the enforcement arm of the city’s Department of Finance, has been at the forefront of the city’s limited enforcement efforts. The NYPD has taken the position that it is not allowed to enforce licensing violations from stores openly advertising their wares unless they directly witness a sale.

On Friday morning, New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda sent a statement saying that “The Sheriff’s Office in partnership with OCM and NYPD continues to conduct inspections of illegal operations seizing all illegal and unlicensed products. These locations continue to present a public health and safety problem for our communities.”

These photos were taken along Ninth Avenue Thursday night, December 30, 2022 by ManhattanReal EstateTracker.com.