The South Loop got its first recreational marijuana dispensary on Thursday. And it’s a Black- and family-owned business.
It’s been six months since Matthew Brewer celebrated the opening of Grasshopper Club’s first shop in Logan Square at 2551 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Opening its second shop at 58 E. Roosevelt Road was no easier, he said.
“There were probably 25 or 35 different obstacles that were strong enough to stop this process,” Brewer, 42, said at the grand opening Thursday.
For a year and a half after identifying the location, Brewer struggled with fundraising, securing permits, rezoning and fending off a petition to keep the South Loop off-limits to dispensaries. Brewer also held four community meetings.
But it was all worth it, he said.
Expanding the family business has allowed him to hire folks the business hasn’t had room for.
The new shop’s general manager is Jason Neloms, who has been working in the marijuana business since 2019. He attended the grand opening in Logan Square in February and had introduced himself then, Brewer said, but there was no room to hire him until recently.
About 900 people applied for the 20 or so openings at the new store, Brewer said.
It’s very much a family business, Brewer said. His brother, Chuck, runs day-to-day operations. His mother, Dianne, a retired accountant, helps run the books.
Brewer, a commercial litigation attorney who has experience in the medical marijuana industry, wants to keep his business independent. But he’s gotten “a million offers” of buyouts from corporations, he said.
“But they’re all offers, like, here’s money and we want to control you. And that’s not something we’re looking for,” he said. “It’s important for us to keep ownership and control. The second it’s no longer a Black-owned business, we’ve lost a little of the significance.”
Ald. Lamont Robinson (4th) said the Brewers’ independent, Black-owned business is an example of the outcome intended from the state’s 2020 legalization of recreational marijuana.
Robinson said he initially hesitated to vote for the law because he questioned if the state was “going to be able to get it right.” The state’s license process has struggled to prioritize minority business owners from groups historically hurt by harsh cannabis laws.
But Robinson praised the opening of the Brewers’ South Loop shop as a “piece of equity ... in the cannabis space.”
“We have more work to do,” Robinson said. “We need to make sure that we have Matthew Brewers all across the entire state and all across the city of Chicago. He has planted a seed and has created a recipe for others to be able to follow.”
Brewer said he’s seeking to open a third dispensary but hasn’t settled on a spot.
