DeKalb City Council OKs 1-year extension for pot shop’s state license approval

DeKALB – DeKalb Sixth Ward Alderman Mike Verbic said the proposed new shop for an Illinois-based medical and recreational marijuana dispensary with shops is one of the things he is asked about the most.

If approved for a license through the State of Illinois, the 6,600-square-foot future dispensary from NuMed Partners LLC, an Illinois-based company, will be located in the Junction Shopping Center, 818 W. Lincoln Highway, in the former location of Book World. That address is located within DeKalb’s sixth ward.

“I will leave it to say that the anticipation is high,” Verbic said, followed by laughter from council meeting attendees.

The DeKalb City Council voted, 8-0, during their Monday meeting to approve a one-year extension to July 1, 2022, allowing more time for NuMed Partners LLC – which has shops in Chicago, East Peoria and Urbana – to obtain a cannabis dispensary license from the state of Illinois.

The update comes after the city of DeKalb’s Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4 to 1 during their April 5 meeting to allow the timeline extension for the dispensary. Commissioner Bill McMahon was the lone “no” vote, citing concerns about having an “empty storefront for a year” resulting in “zero taxes created,” along with “zero jobs created.”

Per previous city ordinance stipulations, NuMed had a year to obtain a state license after the City Council previously voted, 7-1, in April 2020 to approve the ordinance allowing NuMed to head into the shopping Center on West Lincoln Highway. The shop also had six months after getting the state-issued license to build out the shop and open. DeKalb Third Ward Alderman Tracy Smith was the only no vote, previously citing issues with the proposed location being so close to Northern Illinois University.

Laura Jaramillo Bernal, a spokeswoman for NuMed, said the state license lottery winners were supposed to be announced by the state in May 2020.

“So it’s quite delayed as it is, already,” Jaramillo Bernal said.

Regardless, Jaramillo Bernal said the plan is to move forward with the opening timeline as soon as they get the state license, should NuMed be approved for one. She also said she believes the dispensary has strong chances in getting approved for the license.

“As soon as licenses are announced, the plan is to move forward immediately with permitting, designing and getting ready to build out so we can open our doors to the public as quickly as possible,” Jaramillo Bernal said.

Jaramillo Bernal said the hold up in recreational marijuana shops getting their licenses is partially because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said it’s also partially because of some lawsuits related to the licensing process – though there’s been pressure for outcomes to come sooner rather than later.

Jaramillo Bernal said their landlord has been flexible about their licensing situation. Last she heard, the applications for state licenses are under review, she said.

“There has been no official word at all,” Jaramillo Bernal said. " ... We don’t know when they are going to announce winners. We don’t even know the exact mechanism by which they’re going to end up deciding who gets the licenses and all I can speak from is a sense of hope in guessing that we will have an answer by the fall.”

At any rate, Jaramillo Bernal said she’s glad to hear that residents are asking about it and looking forward to opening up shop for the dispensary.

“As you know, our own cultivation center we acquired last year is not far from you, at Hillcrest,” Jaramillo Bernal said. “So even our own employees, many of whom are DeKalb residents, cannot wait for us to have this dispensary available in DeKalb so that they can be customers at their own company and not have to travel so far to get their cannabis, whether it be medical or otherwise. ... So we are really excited to come to town.”