Cannabis Lounge Planned for Atlantic City Hotel

Visitors to Atlantic City will get the convenience of a cannabis dispensary and consumption lounge just off the famous Boardwalk this summer under a plan considered as one of the city’s vintage hotels. If approved by regulators, the proposal could allow retail marijuana dispensaries already planned at the Claridge Hotel, a former casino from the 1920s, to boardwalk lounges that would allow on-site consumption of cannabis products. will be added soon.

New Jersey regulators are currently working out rules to govern cannabis lounges where patrons can legally smoke, vape or otherwise consume cannabis in public. Final approval of the proposed regulation is highly anticipated by the state’s nascent cannabis industry, with entrepreneurs including his Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan fame already announcing plans to open weed lounges. increase.

Clinics and lounges approved by local regulators

In Atlantic City, the Casino Reinvestment and Development Authority last week approved plans to open a High Roller Dispensary in the former casino area of ​​the Claridge Hotel, just off the boardwalk between Park Place and Indiana Avenue. Business owner John Cohn told local media the High Rollers were close to finalizing Claridge’s lease. The plan includes a $3.2 million renovation of his facility that adds a new entrance to the building on Pacific Avenue near Indiana Avenue.

The planned medical clinic occupies most of an area that was once an art gallery and is now primarily used for weddings, cocktail parties and other events. I plan to keep some. In addition to the new entrance, the infirmary and lounge are also accessible from Claridge’s lobby, unless the hotel is hosting a wedding on the premises.

The high-roller portion of the space, including the 3,700-square-foot Baccarat Room on the second floor, will be converted into a cannabis dispensary and consumption lounge. Plans for consumption lounges include a bar for non-alcoholic beverages to comply with New Jersey’s proposed business regulations that would not allow the sale of alcohol or food in consumption lounges. Other possible amenities for the site, which may open this summer, include opportunities for live entertainment and outside food vendors.

High Rollers also licensed a cannabis growing facility located on a vacant lot on Martin Luther King Boulevard near Atlantic City’s Arctic City. The company expects to create more than 200 jobs to run the enterprise, requiring about 175 positions in its grow facility and about 35 people to run its cannabis dispensaries and grow lounges. We need staff.

“We feel that using cannabis for tourism is good for the city as a whole.” corn said“You can’t go to the boardwalk, but it’s relatively close.”

Atlantic City has a weedy ‘green zone’

New Jersey will legalize recreational marijuana in 2021, and the state now has 21 dispensaries serving adult cannabis to consumers. Last year, Atlantic City established a “green zone” to attract cannabis businesses to the city’s struggling downtown areas. This zone includes Atlantic and Pacific Avenues from Boston Avenue to Maryland Avenue, and the Orange Loop District, an area of ​​bars, restaurants, and live entertainment that stretches from Tennessee and New York Avenues to Pacific Avenue to 200 feet from the Boardwalk. It is included. The use of cannabis permitted within the Zone includes cultivation, manufacture, wholesale, distribution, retail and delivery.

However, the Atlantic City Boardwalk itself has restrictions on cannabis businesses. This restriction does not apply to the Claridge Hotel, which is separated from the boardwalk by Brighton Park and the city’s Korean War Memorial. Atlantic City also has two of his medical marijuana dispensaries, The Botanist and MPX NJ.