LES Dispensary ConBud to Open Second Location in the Bronx

ConBud will be operated by Michael Montas’ Summit Canna, which signed a 10-year lease for about 3,000 square feet on the ground floor of the three-story commercial building, according to Alfredo Angueira, who co-founded ConBud and owns the property. 

Asking rent was $72 per square foot, Angueira said.

ConBud opened its first dispensary at 85 Delancey Street on the Lower East Side in October. 

To date, co-founders Angueira and Junior Martinez have raised $1.3 million from investors to launch the two dispensaries, according to Angueira, who grew up in the Bronx and first partnered with Martinez in 2016 to launch their restaurant and catering group, Hoodspitality.

The pair saw an opportunity when New York legalized recreational cannabis in 2021 and purchased the Mott Haven building that year for $3.2 million. 

Now, it will be home to ConBud’s second location, and they brought Montas on board to operate it. 

Running a licensed cannabis shop is a new venture for Montas, who owns Yonkers autobody shop All in One Motor Sports. He also has a decades-old marijuana conviction, and was awarded a conditional adult-use retail dispensary license by the state Office of Cannabis Management last April.

ConBud will be the fourth dispensary to set up shop in the Bronx after delivery-only SeshNYC and brick-and-mortar stores Statis and Hush opened last year.

New York’s rollout of legal cannabis has been slow, with only 47 dispensaries open thus far and thousands still in line to receive licenses, according to the state. That hasn’t stopped a burgeoning black market from cropping up, which officials have been scrambling to stomp out. 

Despite these challenges, legal cannabis generated $150 million in tax revenue for the state during its first full year in 2023, Crain’s New York Business reported.

State lawmakers tasked the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York with negotiating leases and building out dispensaries using a private investment fund it oversees, but the glacial pace and lack of transparency in the process has led operators to take matters into their own hands. Angueira said ConBud did everything themselves, from finding real estate to securing financing.

“The Lower East Side location was 100 percent done by us,” Angueira said. “We funded the construction, negotiated the lease. We have individuals that want to invest in the company.”

There were no brokers involved in the Bronx lease, which brings the building to 100 percent occupied, Angueira said. Office tenants occupy the second and third floors. 

Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.