One of Toronto’s first legal cannabis stores may be coming to the city’s former mecca of hippie culture.
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has posted a public notice on its website for an application to open a brick-and-mortar cannabis retail shop at 20 Cumberland St., in the heart of the trendy, upscale Yorkville neighbourhood.
It would be one of the city’s first legal cannabis shops to open since legalization took effect last October. The business name on the application is Ameri.
Two other applications were added to the AGCO list of applications subsequent to the Yorkville shop application: Nova Cannabis, at 499 Queen St. W., and Honey Pot Cannabis Co., at 202 Queen St. W.
The name associated with the Yorkville application, from the expression of interest process, is Seyedarash Seyedameri, who was one of 25 people or companies in Ontario selected to receive a retail operator licence via a provincial lottery. If the application is approved, this will surely not be the first time the drug will be bought and sold in the area.
Although it is now known as an area for high-price boutiques and restaurants, and the fancy people who frequent them, in the ’60s, Yorkville was ground zero for Toronto’s hippie scene.
The proposed location was previously home to MMJ Canada, an illegal medical marijuana dispensary.
“The applicant determined the location, not the AGCO,” said Raymond Kahnert, senior communications advisor with the AGCO, on the decision to set up shop in Yorkville.
A local business owner in the vicinity, who chose to remain anonymous, was not a fan of MMJ and is thinking of registering her concerns with the AGCO during this current Ameri application process.
“It rubbed me the wrong way, and also a lot of our clients don’t like the smell [of cannabis]. They think it takes the area down because it’s Yorkville,” she said. “Even though it’s fine and it’s legal, it brings a different vibe to the area, which nobody likes.”
Local city councillor Mike Layton said he has been supportive of legalization since the beginning but is surprised at the choice of location due to the high retail rents and the fact that upcoming construction will make the neighbourhood less accessible.
He said he notified the residents’ associations in the neighbourhood and hoped that if they had concerns they would register objections.
“They’re coming, they’ve got to go somewhere,” said Layton of the legal cannabis stores. “We want to try to lessen any, if there are any, destructive impacts of them.”
The licenced stores can legally open on April 1.
