Cresco Labs received special use approval from the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals for a marijuana dispensary to be located at 436 N. Clark Street in the city’s River North neighborhood. The dispensary is one of the two licenses Cresco won in the Central District in Chicago’s lottery last November, and one of the only two city-approved adult-use dispensaries in downtown Chicago to date. The dispensary will be Cresco’s sixth Sunnyside* location in Illinois.
“Earning the right to operate in this highly coveted location is both a privilege and a significant opportunity for Cresco,” said Charlie Bachtell, Cresco Labs CEO and co-founder. “The dispensary is minutes from the Magnificent Mile, one of the busiest shopping districts in the United States. On a personal note, it is also minutes from Cresco’s corporate headquarters, and I couldn’t be more excited about Sunnyside* potentially having a flagship dispensary in this neighborhood.”
The final step of the approval process for Cresco’s River North Sunnyside* dispensary is an inspection by the State of Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and being awarded an Adult Use Dispensing Organization License. Cresco has licenses to open an additional four dispensaries and has so far announced its intention to open locations in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, Danville and South Beloit.
Cresco is nearing completion of a significant expansion that will bring total cultivation to 243,000 square feet of cultivation and will considerably increase supply to support its dispensaries and wholesale distribution across the state. Cresco is able to expand its three cultivation facilities to an aggregate total of 630,000 square feet of flowering canopy—the largest capacity footprint allowed in the state. Cresco currently sells into 100 percent of licensed dispensaries in Illinois and has maintained its leading market share of wholesale sales in the state.
The Illinois adult-use market is proving to be as robust as forecasted with $74 million in sales during the first two months and the state is expected to be a $2 to $4 billion dollar market at maturity.
