William Norgard Opening 10K-SF Cannabis Dispensary in Times Square
By Abigail Nehring July 10, 2024 1:37 pm
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A four-story cannabis dispensary run by one of the service-disabled veterans who won the right last fall to sell recreational weed is coming to 30 Times Square.
William Norgard signed a 20-year lease for the entire 10,040-square-foot building bedecked with billboards at the corner of Seventh Avenue and West 48th Street, according to property records made public July 3. The deal was first reported by Crain’s New York Business.
The yet-to-be-named dispensary, on which Norgard is partnering with attorney James Mallios, already applied for an adult-use retail license at 30 Times Square through Norgard’s company, 2 Forest Park Lane, according to Crain’s and state records.
Norgard declined to comment on the deal, saying only that he’d share details soon on what will likely be the largest dispensary to open in the state thus far.
Norgard won the right to open the dispensary last fall after he joined three others to sue the state Office of Cannabis Management, arguing the state’s rule to issue licenses only to people with prior convictions for marijuana offenses violated their rights as disabled veterans. The parties settled the suit in November.
The building, which has an alternative address of 719 Seventh Avenue, was owned by SL Green (SLG) Realty, but Manhattan’s biggest commercial landlord sold it for $32.5 million the same day Norgard signed the deal to rent it, according to property records and PincusCo, which first reported the sale.
The building’s new owner is a limited liability company tied to Wayne Boich’s Boich Investment Group and Andrew Mathias, who stepped down as president of SL Green in late December.
Mallios, Mathias and a spokesperson for Boich did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The property was previously occupied by cosmetics giant Coty, which opened a Cover Girl store there in 2018, as Commercial Observer previously reported.
Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.
