EarthMed pot dispensary opens in McHenry at former Panera Bread location

McHenry’s first - and by ordinance, only - recreational marijuana dispensary held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday just hours after its sign was mounted on the building at 1711 N. Richmond Road.

The boom truck that installed the sign was still there at 3 p.m. as McHenry dignitaries arrived for the event.

The dispensary is also waiting on its electronic menu kiosks, a victim of supply chain problems, said Mike Perez, EarthMed’s chief operating officer.

“There are some people who don’t like technology” and using a kiosk to shop. “We have people to help them out, too” as customers pick their recreational pot product of choice, Perez said. He does expect those kiosks to arrive soon, he noted.

City staff and Mayor Wayne Jett were on hand for the ribbon-cutting.

Just over a year ago, the McHenry City Council changed its recreational dispensary ordinance, allowing just one in the city and setting its portion of the sales tax at 3%.

At the time, Ross Polerecky, director of planning and zoning, told the council that a dispensary was looking to locate in McHenry.

EarthMed, with stores in Addison and Rosemont, was one of the first dispensary companies to approach the city, Economic Development Director Doug Martin said this week. City staff members toured the Addison location “a couple of years ago” and kept communication open as litigation prevented the state of Illinois from approving more dispensary licenses.

But with just one license available in McHenry, there was a race for building permits. The first dispensary to submit that permit would be the one to get the license, Martin said.

EarthMed “found this location. ... there were a couple of dispensaries looking at the time,” Martin said.

“We can grab those people before they hit Richmond.”

—  Mike Perez, Chief Operating Officer at EarthMed

EarthMed was the winner, securing the site of a former Panera Bread. The Panera Bread built a new location across the street with a drive-thru, Martin said.

It is McHenry County’s sixth dispensary, and the fifth to open in the past year.

Jett said he was not against changing the ordinance in the future if other dispensaries seek a McHenry location.

He believes in “letting businesses open and close with the market” and demand, Jett said, but that when council made the change, ”we were giving a business the opportunity to be the only one.”

McHenry was an attractive location due to the traffic on Route 31 (Richmond Road) “and the zoning was ready to go,” Perez said. The location, a major route for people heading to Lake Geneva, also makes it a solid location, he added.

“We can grab those people before they hit Richmond,” Perez added, a tongue-in-cheek references to Spark’d dispensary and owners Zachary and Bryan Zises.

While there are more dispensaries opening in Illinois, Perez and business partner Gus Koukoutsakis both agreed recreational marijuana prices may not be coming down.

“Cultivators control the prices,” Koukoutsakis said. But with marijuana legal in both Michigan and Missouri, Illinois may feel pressure to get prices here more in line with those states, he added.

A grand opening for EarthMed McHenry is set for 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 30.