New Windsor retail cannabis store prepares to open this month

Downtown could have pot shop by month's end Windsor's first legal retail cannabis store is close to opening. CTV's Melanie Borrelli reports.

Windsor, Ont., — After several delays, it looks like a downtown Windsor pot shop up could be up and running by the end of the month.

It will be the first legal operation of its kind in Windsor.

Renovations are well underway at the location at 545 Ouellette Ave.

David Craig is the chief design officer for J. Supply Holdings, with a consulting agreement with Kirk Anastasiadis, the London businessman who was awarded the license for the pot shop in August, 2019.

“We are setting up the store, the branding, standard operating proceedures,” says Craig. “All the aspects that are necessary to open a legal cannabis store."

The store was originally expected to open in November, but it is now slated to open between March 20-27.

"The AGCO does require that there are a number of cheques and balances that we go through to ensure that the people that are actually opening the store live up to the eligibility criteria,"added Craig.

Craig says they have been researching the Windsor market.

"We took our time to investigate with some of the businesses in the area, some of the business leaders in the community," says Craig.

Windsor city administration, the health unit and police all expressed concerns about the location, but Councillor Rino Bortolin says he is in favour.

"What I've heard from other city councillors and colleagues is that we're actually eager to see the store open,” says Bortolin. “A store like that should be in a business district. It would be somewhere in one of the BIAs along a main street."

He says it will help drive people to the downtown area.

"Well it's traffic, it's foot traffic,” says Bortolin. “So when' you're bringing thousands of people a month downtown to shop at that store, especially being the only one between here and Essex County.”

Bortolin says the biggest concern might be around crowd control, but Craig says they will have the proper measures in place.

"The store that we have in London that we've been operating for about a year, we do between anywhere between 800 and 1500 customers a day and we've managed to do that based on our systems and our standard operating procedures."

The new store will be called "J Supply Co." It will sport a modern, user-friendly design and employ about 20 people.

Craig says what they are creating is an experience and it will help people get more comfortable with the concept of cannabis.