Second cannabis retail shop opens in SLO — with another Central Coast store on the way
A new cannabis shop has opened in San Luis Obispo.
SLOCal Roots officially opened at 3535 South Higuera St. in late March. But the business chose Wednesday — known among cannabis aficionados as 4/20 Day — for its grand opening.
The store’s launch marks the opening of the second permitted marijuana retail shop in the city. Megan’s Organic Market opened in August 2020.
SLOCal Roots is operated by Austen Connella, 39, an Atascadero High School and Cuesta College graduate. Connella has a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship from San Francisco State University, where he focused on cannabis operations, he said.
Connella said he tried to open a medical marijuana dispensary in Templeton in 2003, but the permit application wasn’t granted after county review and an appeals process.
“I really want to bring safe access (to cannabis) to our county,” he said, adding that the SLOCal Roots store is “the culmination of 20 years of trying to do this.”
Connella and business partner Kristin Kordich co-own SLOCal Roots Farms, an integrated California cannabis operator with cultivation, processing, packaging and retail sales aspects, according to a company news release.
Their Nipomo area farm, established in 2016, will eventually supply marijuana products for the San Luis Obispo store, Connella said, but it must first work out some packaging issues.
“We’ll provide local cannabis right here,” Kordich, 42, said. “I’m very excited to have an outlet for my product and for the cannabis I grow on the farm. We invested everything we’ve had from Day 1. We’re very grassroots and very proud of what we’ve accomplished.”
SLO cannabis shop opens
Located a few commercial spaces away from Big Brand Tire on South Higuera Street, the SLOCal Roots shop sells a wide range of products including flowers, edibles, topicals, vaporizers, and drink products.
Some products contain non-psychoactive ingredients intended to help with sleep, while other products have psychoactive ingredients.
Cannabis product prices range from about $2 to $120, with most flower products costing between $10 and $69.
Connella said the store has averaged about 150 customers per day since opening, and the average customer spends around $70 per purchase.
Customers must be 21 or older and present identification to security at the door.
The business is currently located in a 600-square-foot space, but plans to soon expand into a 4,200-square-foot facility in the back on the property, where an auto shop is moving out.
“Our building permits are under review by the city, so as soon as they’re approved, we’ll break ground, hopefully within the next 30 days,” Connella said. “We’ll be doing quite a substantial remodel with glass roll-up doors and a living wall. We hope to open by March of next year.”
The store is fully staffed with 13 employees now, but expects to grow to about 30 when its new facility in the back opens, Connella said.
In the first year of operation, SLOCal Roots projects $20,000 in local charitable giving in San Luis Obispo and 400 hours of community service to organizations including Food Bank Coalition of SLO County, according to the release.
SLOCal Roots projects $250,000 in San Luis Obispo city cannabis tax proceeds in 2022, growing to $500,000 in 2023, its news release said.
“We’re very community-minded,’ Connella said. “This is our community and our home. It’s not just about making a dollar. It’s about giving back and having an impact.”
In addition to the San Luis Obispo store, SLOCal Roots was approved to open a second Central Coast retail shop in Guadalupe. Root One is slated to open its doors in about six months.
How did SLOCal Roots get city permit?
SLOCal Roots was awarded a San Luis Obispo retail operator permit after a background check disqualified another local cannabis business, Elemental Wellness, which had received a contingent operator permit.
SLOCal Roots was the next eligible applicant.
“We welcome SLO CAL Roots to San Luis Obispo and appreciate working with the business through our permitting process,” Michael Codron, San Luis Obispo community development director, wrote in an email. “We will continue to work diligently to ensure the ongoing compliance of all operators in the city.”
The award of a third San Luis Obispo retail permit has been put on hold as the city anticipates possible changes to its cannabis program in the summer, Codron said.
Central Coast cannabis business Natural Healing Center had previously been granted the third of the city’s cannabis retail permits allowed under its ordinance.
But the city revoked NHC’s permit in October after the company’s former owner, Helios Dayspring was charged with federal bribery and filing a false income tax return, citing “false or misleading information in obtaining and maintaining the operator permit.” (Dayspring pleaded guilty to those charges and faces sentencing on May 27 in federal court.)
In response, NHC filed a lawsuit against the city claiming the license for its retail store operator permit was improperly revoked. The company contends that at the time the permit was granted, Dayspring “was not a member or owner of NHC, as his interests had previously been transferred to Ms. Valnette Garcia, with the city’s written consent.”
The city’s legal position in opposition to NHC, however, asserts that “their (principle owner’s) criminal misconduct was entirely within their control,” San Luis Obispo city attorney Christine Dietrick told The Tribune in January.
“The consequences for that are theirs,” Dietrick previously said. “We think that the city has acted fairly, appropriately, and in a way that’s legally supportable.”
Natural Healing Center is seeking reinstatement of its permit, which has been unsuccessful in court so far, according to Codron.
“While NHC’s lawsuit is still going through the appeals process, the courts have twice denied NHC’s attempts to compel the city to reinstate NHC’s operator permit,” Codron wrote in his email on Wednesday. “We await another scheduled hearing in July.
“With that said, the city still has a third operator permit, but we don’t intend to solicit applications until City Council has had a chance to review and make changes to our cannabis program sometime this summer.”
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