With the legalization of recreational cannabis, the race is on to open the city’s first pot shops. But the field will be limited: Shops must be at least 1,500 feet away from one another, and hopeful weed sellers need to hold community meetings and get zoning approval before opening their doors.
In the midst of such heated competition, a politically connected developer fears that rivals may be sabotaging his efforts to open two cannabis stores.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Fred Lasko wants to open pot emporiums in West Town and River North, in buildings he already owns. The newspaper reported Lasko said he does not have a financial stake in any marijuana businesses, but that Windy City Cannabis had approached him about setting up shop in his building at 901 W. Kinzie in the West Loop and PharmaCann, another local company, wants to open a pot shop at 444 N. LaSalle, which was once the home of the English Bar & Restaurant.
PharmaCann and other firms that want to open pot stores in the city will appear before the Zoning Board of Appeals this month to plead their cases, but Windy City Cannabis has not yet applied for a permit or held a mandatory community meeting, both prerequisites for a zoning hearing, and so will miss the chance to appear before the Zoning Board this month, the Sun-Times reported.
Lasko was closely associated with Danny Solis, the retired former city alderman who chaired the City Council’s Zoning Committee. Solis was investigated by the federal government and accused of receiving favors, including sexual favors, in return for city actions, many of them favorable to Lasko, who was accused of giving Solis free use of an Indiana property in exchange for favorable decisions; he denied the charges. Lasko was named in a 2019 federal warrant to search Solis’ offices.
Because of his political connections and history in the city, Lasko said that he suspects rivals may be sabotaging his chances to lease his buildings to pot stores, the Sun-Times reported. For example, after a city inspector did not gain access to the LaSalle property (purportedly because of a report of unauthorized construction, although the actual construction was nearby), officials on Feb. 18 posted a warning on the building that its owner could be charged with “interfering with officials.” A subsequent inspection found nothing wrong with the building.
Lasko told the paper he believes competitors are trying to cause problems for him, but no concrete evidence has surfaced.
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