Spring sprout: 52 NYC marijuana retailers finally getting licenses to sell pot

Things are about to get even greener in New York City, and the spring weather has little do with it.

Some 52 businesses across the Five Boroughs got the green light Monday from the Cannabis Control Board (CCB) to receive their licenses to officially open up shop and sell legalized pot to New Yorkers.

The CCB approved the latest round of Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licenses — the legal document required to open a pot shop or cannabis cafe — at its April 3 meeting.

“These new licenses will allow entrepreneurs to fairly participate in the legal market while promoting innovation and creative diversity throughout New York’s ever-growing cannabis supply chain,” said CCB Chair Tremaine Wright.

The 53 new licenses for New York City were among 99 issues statewide Monday, bringing the statewide total to 399, although only a handful have opened statewide. Just four legal dispensaries have opened to date in the Five Boroughs — three in Manhattan, and another that opened last week in Jamaica, Queens.

The CAURD licenses are awarded to applicants across the state who have had prior experience operating a licensed business in New York state, or have suffered the effects of a cannabis-related offense prior to the legalization of recreational marijuana use on March 31, 2021.

The newly-approved New York City CAURD licenses are for the following entities:

Manhattan (20) 

• CONBUD LLC, owned by Coss S. Marte, Alfredo M. Angueira Jr. and Ramon Martinez.
• Robin Hood Cannabis, LLC, Jennifer Tzar and Tanya Hotton.
• The Herbal Care THC LLC, Markel Bababekov and Abbas Bababekov in the New York State Borough of Manhattan. For (5) years Markel Bababekov, a justice involved applicant, owned & operated S&M Planet Consulting Inc, a dry cleaning service. 
• NC Accident Reports LLC, Joseph Merlo and Berkay Sebat.
• Weeds R Us Inc., Joshua J AHL and Jak Eisakharian.
• Flower Power NYC Corp., Angelo Kitkas.
• Eruditoherbals LLC, Fernando Leendof.
• Soodaks Inc., Mitchell R. Soodak and Ellis S. Soodak Leendof.
• Mighty Lucky LLC, Bernard Allulli Jr. 
• Organic Relief Leaf, Joseph Abramov.
• Terrapin Greens 24-7, Inc., Christopher T. Concannon and Thomas P. Concannon.
• Cannadreams Inc., Jie Lin. 
• Don Resources Unlimited LLC, Donnell Furlow.
• Euphoria Dispensary of New York, James Kelley.
• Gotham Buds LLC, Jeffrey Lopez, Omar A. Tejada, Gregory Gray, Brian Jones, and Malika Bellamy.
• APF Syndicate Corporation, Usama M. Elsayed and Moe Ashor.
• BlazinUp LLC, Matthew Ward and Miguel Bernard.
• Smelly Nelly LLC, Nelson Cabrera.
• Green Health LLC, Anthony Melchior.
• New York Tetrahydrocannabinol Company LLC, Harold L. Baines.

Queens (17)

• Michael Pagan, for himself.
• Just a Little Higher LLC, Pagan and Gregory Kornegay.
• Kush Culture Industry LLC, Jeremy Rivera and Alessandro Cottone. 
• Buds “R” Us LLC, Benjamin Espinoza Jr. 
• Cannabis Culture 1 LLC, Angela P. Stokes.
• BigFlavor Entertainment Corp., Caesar Grandez Jr.
• Clemencia E. Meza, for herself and Hector E. Echeverry.
• Best Sala consulting, Best Sala.
• Fignolecar LLC, Carrel Fignole, Anais Burrnett, Diana Lopez, Verlee Jones and Latoya Fignole.
• BudBiz LLC, Salvatore Pinto, Giancarlo Pinto and Jon P. Pezzo.
• Actualize, Daniel Morena.
• Green Jungle, Robert Atkins and Marko Popovic.
• Boxing Express LLC, Rodney W. Carter Jr.
• Sean Kang, for himself.
• Boom Factory LLC, Latrisha Wilkins, Natasha Mitchell and Shaniqua Anthony.
• Proper Prints LLC, Angel Pagan I.
• David Hooper Jr., for himself.

Bronx (9)

• Summit Canna LLC, Michael A Montas, Ronald Martinez, Jorge Jimenez.
• Smoking Scholars LLC, Zahir Brooks.
• Zil Zal Inc., Wadah A. Abdulkader Brooks.
• Green Sun Inc., Edwin Ripoll and Dragan Ristovski.
• Common Courtesy Dispensary LLC, Doreen Ekokobe, Tankrachap Asogna-Morfaw and George Tabi Jr. 
• DNP-Z LLC, David and Marcia Nicponski.
• 420 NY LLC, Albert Cooks and Randy White.
• Emmanuel E. De Jesus, for himself.
• Cannabis Emporium Corp., Denis and Levent Ozkurt.

Brooklyn (3) 

• Evija Artworks Inc., Misha Morse-Buch.
• Level Up NYC Corp., Justin Boyer, Catherine Ouellette and John Rufino.
• Dank Heaven, Mark Shifrin, Leroy Dunn and Paul Shifrin.

Staten Island (3) 

• Big Dipper NY, LLC, Brian Kelleher, Natalia Thurston, Eric Velasquez and Michael Quintanilla.
• NugHub NY LLC, Michael Gertelman.
• Green Empire Wellness LLC, John T. Ha and Paul T. Ha.

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