By the Numbers: Not quite “New Amsterdam”

NYC’s soon-to-debut medical marijuana dispensaries</br> will be few and far between

At the height of the medical marijuana boom in Los Angeles, there were more dispensaries than Starbucks locations. New York’s Starbucks have nothing like that to fear, but a handful of (medical) pot purveyors will soon be opening here. After a competitive bidding process, with companies sporting names like PharmaCann, Compassionate Sunset and Good Green Group vying to make the cut, the Empire State awarded five licenses to medical marijuana operators a few weeks ago. As part of the application process, all bidders were required to have lease options lined up for both indoor grow houses and for retail dispensaries in the event of a win. Now, the victors have until the end of the year to get those operations up and running. With thousands of patients expected to seek prescriptions to help treat HIV and AIDS, chemotherapy side effects, epilepsy and other medical issues, some are questioning whether 20 dispensaries across a state of nearly 20 million will be enough. And since New York’s law, which bans smoking and edibles, allowing only liquids, oils and pills, is among the most restrictive in the nation, don’t expect to see a “New Amsterdam” anytime soon.

4
Number of the 20 state dispensaries planned for NYC — two in Manhattan, one in the Bronx and one in Queens. Four more will set up shop in NYC’s suburbs, while 12 will be located upstate. By comparison, there were 1,368 NYC liquor stores as of 2014.

$1.2 billion
Expected statewide revenue from medical marijuana by 2020, according to research firm GreenWave Advisors. Revenue is expected to be $239 million in 2016. The group says the industry could be worth $35 billion if marijuana were legalized for medical and recreational use nationally.

112:1
Ratio of medical marijuana dispen- saries last year in LA, which has 450, to the number planned in NYC. LA had around 700 medicinal pot stores before California passed a proposition in 2013 tightening rules.

New York State law requires dispensaries sell only liquids, pills or oils.

New York State law requires dispensaries sell only liquids, pills or oils.

1,000
Number of feet from a school or house of worship a NY dispensary must be located under the law. For liquor stores it’s only 200 feet. And until this summer, when a court overturned a city-zoning ordinance, strip clubs and adult businesses had a 500-foot requirement.

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235,000 sq. ft.
Size of the Long Island City warehouse where Bloomfield Industries, one of the selected vendors, will grow its ganja. The site, an industrial building that changed hands for roughly $30 million last year, will be the only grow house in the city. (Bloomfield, based in Staten Island, is also one of two companies opening a Manhattan dispensary, but its location has yet to be announced.)

$175
Price psf on the ground floor of 212 East 14th Street, the East Village location where winner Columbia Care NY will open a dispensary. The company signed a five-year lease for 2,000 square feet at street level and will also rent 1,500 square feet in the basement, at $75 psf. That amounts to about $462,500 in rent each year.

Marijuana-pills$1 million
Amount Compassionate Care Center of New York would have paid in annual rent as part of a 10-year lease for 8,000 square feet of undeveloped waterfront land on Staten Island. The company didn’t make the cut, but lawyer Brett Theis, who represented the landlord, said the vendor was looking to spend millions to build the site. The high-profile partnership between the Durst Organization and the Greater New York Hospital Association was also not selected.

5,060 sq. ft.
Size of PharmaCannis’ planned dispensary in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. Empire State Health Solutions is also opening a roughly 6,800-square-foot Queens’ dispensary across the street from Queens Center Mall. Empire CEO Dr. Kyle Kingsley said it will be “a mix between a pharmacy and a doctor’s office.” Both will be required to have perimeter alarms, motion detectors and video cameras where marijuana is kept.

$350
The maximum price vendors can charge for a 30-day prescription under the state law. An ounce of low quality pot sells for about $260 or more in NYC. High quality ganja costs $340 or more per ounce.

88%
The share of New York state residents who said medical marijuana should be legal in a 2014 Quinnipiac University poll.