Open for months, Elevate, Westchester's 1st legal cannabis shop lacks crucial city approvals

With a burst of fanfare, Westchester’s first cannabis dispensary opened on Feb. 20, with Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard claiming bragging rights as the county’s home for legal weed.

Beaming with pride, Patterson-Howard stood front and center with a pair of oversized scissors at the ribbon-cutting for Elevate, located on South Terrace Avenue in a neighborhood by the Mount Vernon West Metro-North station, with a mix of industrial buildings, two-family homes, and a church.

She was flanked by city Comptroller Darren Morton, Elevate owner John Ruggiero, and Chris Alexander, executive director of New York’s beleaguered Office of Cannabis Management.

Here was the chance for Alexander to snip the ribbon and welcome Westchester's first legal adult-use retail outlet for recreational cannabis, located in a former auto-body shop that underwent a gut renovation in 2023 to emerge as the county's flagship cannabis dispensary.

At long last, Westchester had a legal dispensary.

At a time of growing concern over illegal smoke shops in southern Westchester, Patterson-Howard viewed the retail cannabis outlet as a promising opportunity for economic development. A press release from the Mayor’s Office noted that Mount Vernon “is set to embrace the burgeoning legal cannabis market.”

“We are growing our industry,” said Patterson-Howard that chilly February morning. “We are growing small businesses here in the city of Mount Vernon because we are Mount Vernon strong.”

That strength will be tested in coming days.

A Tax Watch investigation has found that the dispensary lacked a certificate for occupancy from the city's Building Department when it opened on Dec. 9, just five days after receiving its operating license from the state, and just in time to provide product for holiday parties and stocking stuffers from Santa.

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It still didn't have a certificate of occupancy more than two months later when Mayor Patterson-Howard and OCM Executive Director Alexander cut the ribbon on Feb. 20.

And more than three months after its opening, the dispensary still lacks crucial city approvals that any other business would have required to obtain before opening its doors.

A certificate of occupancy must be issued before a renovated space that needs a building permit is able to be used or occupied, according to the state building code.

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Eight days after the opening, which was covered with glowing reports by newspapers, broadcast television and local cable outlets, Mount Vernon Building Commissioner Patrick Holder issued a "temporary certificate of occupancy" to allow the weed shop to operate in conformance with city law, according to a document obtained through the Freedom of Information Law.

That document, however, states the the temporary certificate of occupancy was issued, based on its compliance with approved plans, a building permit issued to allow its construction, and its compliance with all city laws.

A month-long Tax Watch investigation found myriad irregularities with Holder's certificate.

• The gut renovation was undertaken without a building permit because Elevate has yet to appear before the city's Planning Board, which must approve the project before construction can begin.

• No approved construction plans were found in the building's folder at the Building Department.

• City zoning law prohibits a dispensary within 500 feet of a parcel where a house of worship operates. The Fresh Start Christian Center holds worship services at 115 S. MacQuesten Parkway, which has frontage on South Terrace, less than 200 feet from the dispensary's front door.

Mount Vernon Director of Communications Tim Allen maintained the building commissioner had the right to issue the temporary certificate of occupancy, even though the project lacked Planning Board approval and approved building plans. The official document granting the certificate said the project already had the yet-to-be obtained city approvals.

"The City of Mount Vernon has the authority to issue a temporary certificate of tenancy based on the Building Commissioner’s evaluation of life safety issues," wrote Allen. "However, we are currently awaiting approval from the planning board regarding parking before issuing the permanent certificate of tenancy."

Elevate was able to obtain its state license in December through the state's Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensary program, which gave first dibs to what's called "justice-involved" individuals who were busted during the decades-long War on Drugs. Heading up the company are two men who grew up on Devoe Avenue in Yonkers — John Ruggiero, 35, and Chris Carey, 36. Carey said he was nabbed on marijuana charges as a teen and expelled from Saunders High.

On a recent Tuesday night, I stopped by the dispensary, just before closing. It's located around the corner from the two-family home I bought in 1987 on New Haven Railroad Street. At close to 9 p.m., there were still customers perusing the goods, including cannabis flower than ranged in price from $20 to $54 for an eighth of an ounce.

Ruggiero, who contributed $250 to Patterson-Howard's campaign committee in 2023, acknowledged that he still needed to satisfy city regulations regarding off-street parking requirements at the city's Planning Board on April 3. Cars were parked on the sidewalk in front of Elevate on Monday morning when its 7-space parking was filled at 9:30 a.m.

“It’s a parking lot approval we are waiting for,” Ruggiero said. “It’s in process."

He dismissed concerns that the dispensary would need a zoning variance because the dispensary was within 500 feet of the lot-line of the building that houses the Fresh Start Christian Center. He insisted the measurement should be taken to the church's entrance on South MacQuesten Parkway, more than 500 feet from the dispensary's front door.

"It's not a problem," he said.

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Former Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Thomas, who calls himself a "founding member" of Elevate and serves as the company's media contact, said there's no requirement that the retail shop obtain a certificate of occupancy to conduct business after the gut rehabilitation of auto body shop, and its transformation to a retail outlet.

Thomas, who resigned in 2019 after he plead guilty to criminal charges related to the misuse of campaign funds, said Elevate moved quickly to open before the City Council had adopted new zoning laws to allow dispensaries in industrial zones.

"Mount Vernon didn't have any laws on the books," he said. "It was a very business-friendly opportunity to bring it to the city of Mount Vernon first."

He maintained the city waived its rights to oversight of the project once it allowed cannabis dispensaries to open, and Elevate obtained its license.

"Once you get the state approval, that's it," he said.

A spokesman for the Office of Cannabis Management, however, said a retail cannabis dispensary is required to have a certificate of occupancy — or the equivalent — to open to the public. Spokesman Aaron Ghitelman said the agency was provided with "an equivalent" approval in June, 2023. That's nine months before the city granted a "temporary certificate of occupancy" in February, 2024.

"The municipality was there at the ribbon-cutting too," he said. "The municipality and the state feel that things were satisfied."

Mayor Patterson-Howard, who served as city's planning commissioner in 2016 during Thomas' troubled stint as mayor, told Tax Watch she was unaware of any problems.

"They have what they are supposed to have," said Patterson-Howard. "Legal cannabis businesses are the same as alcohol back in the days of prohibition, when it began legal. People may not always like it, but it's a business."

She said she'd check on the dispensary's status.

"I'll have to follow up and check on that because they have all the paperwork they are supposed to have."

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David McKay Wilson writes about tax issues and government accountability. Follow him on Twitter @davidmckay415 or email him at dwilson3@lohud.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Elevate marijuana dispensary in Mount Vernon operates, lacks key approvals