Retail pot could burst on scene

By Collin Gallant on August 18, 2018.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant

A long empty strip mall bay across from city hall, a former car dealership, liquor stores, general retail bays and an oil and gas office are among properties earmarked for transformation into cannabis retail outlets in Medicine Hat.

The agenda for next Wednesday’s municipal planning commission meeting reveals nine spots subject to discretionary-use changes to retail cannabis locations.

Not on that list yet is a small bay next to the Mac’s location at the corner to First Street and Sixth Avenue SE, where construction is underway and a posted permit describes work allowed to Compass Cannabis of Kelowna.

Nor do they include larger conglomerates expected to seek out large portions of the marketplace.

Patrick Wallace, owner of Crossroads liquor store and two others in Medicine Hat, is the applicant, and hopes to add cannabis sales to separate liquor and convenience stores he also operates in the building he owns.

“I’m a businessman and I think it’s going to sell,” said Wallace on Friday. “It augments our current product line and seems like a good fit. It’s not the product line I’d ever thought I’d be in, but you have to go with the flow.”

Crews are already busy dividing space and putting up walls in his current convenience store location near 10th Avenue, SW — a separate space required for cannabis retailers, under guidelines.

That’s going ahead to meet AGLC guidelines about stand-alone locations for cannabis sales. The building’s permits were let under its current retail use.

It’s all part of a complex application process for the soon-to-be legal substance.

Wallace started the provincial application process five months ago, filling out a 160-page form (a liquor application is eight). He also paid $4,300 in fees to the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.

That investment, he said, doesn’t include corporate costs, local application costs (a business licence will likely cost $1,000), plus construction and other permitting, which he says is like a “catch-22” with provincial and city regulations waiting on each other.

“It really feels like the Wild West here where nobody knows what’s going to happen,” he said. “I’m not a gambler. I don’t go to casinos. But I’m putting money into the store.”

The City of Medicine Hat approved zoning in June, and now prospective owners are applying for development permits.

The commission will meet in council chambers Wednesday afternoon to consider the first batch of as many as 20 as discretionary uses.

Wallace’s is one of two in the Southwest Industrial Area.

About two blocks away, a bay facing Highway 3 that was formerly Beaver Liquors is proposed to become “Ace Cannabis” — its applicant listing a business address in Spruce Grove.

Downtown is the site of four official permit applications.

A proposed location for 543 Third St. is three doors east of a popular pub, bearing an Edmonton corporate address.

That location has long sat vacant adjacent to Orange Jigsaw Real Estate office, an independent office, with an agent of the office listed on the ‘leased’ sign at the location. The agent did not return a message seeking comment.

It is also directly across the street from planters that have been the centre of loitering complaints from local businesses over the years.

One block east, at 643 Third St., Victoria-based Clarity Cannabis is suggesting a slim storefront as a retail location. Around the corner on S. Railway Street, a sign proclaims “the Green Exchange” will open in October under local ownership.

A proposal to redevelop a vacant store front at 547 Second St., garnered no significant concerns from neighbouring businesses — a healthfood adviser and the King of Trade.

“I don’t think this will become the ‘green mile’ that everyone might think,” said King of Trade owner Norma Brown. “It’s exciting for downtown.”

There is no separation distance listed in the bylaw for so-called sensitive uses, such as liquor stores, payday loan operators or pawn shops.

Other locations

— 699 Kingsway Ave. The notable white former Subaru dealership is the largest building being contemplated in the initial round. A numbered company is believed to be controlled by a local business woman.

— 3215 Dunmore Road, located in the Carry Plaza, applicant is Kushbar, Inc. with no corporate address listed.

— 915 S. Railway, near the Allowance Avenue overpass, applicant is Hatter Keith Ahlm who hopes to open “Westside Weed.”