After months of delay, a second dispensary is coming to Forest Park.
Bloc Dispensary will open at 7216 Circle Ave., where the Forest Park CVS once stood.
The dispensary’s owners, Emerald Coast LLC, had been discussing opening Bloc in Forest Park since early last year. The village council approved the dispensary in February 2023 after the planning and zoning commission recommended they do so.
Bloc Dispensary requires a special use permit to open on Circle Avenue because it’s a commercially zoned block and, under village code, dispensaries are only permitted in industrially zoned areas. Although Bloc Dispensary previously received a special use permit from the village, it expired after a year.
The dispensary reapplied for its special use permit at a planning and zoning commission meeting last month. Board members unanimously voted in support of the reapplication.
Representatives from Bloc Dispensary did not reply to a request for comment by publication.
Steve Glinke, the director of Forest Park’s department of public health and safety, said the reapplication isn’t unusual, since the cannabis industry is relatively young — recreational cannabis became legal in Illinois at the start of 2020.
There was no public comment at the July planning and zoning meeting. But at past meetings, residents have raised questions about how proximity to a dispensary might affect other businesses and nearby residents. Concerns included loitering and safety.
Bloc Dispensary will have security cameras that, according to state law, the Forest Park Police Department can access.
Mitch Zaveduk, vice president of real estate at Justice Cannabis, which operates the dispensary for Emerald Coast LLC, said during a village council meeting last year that Bloc will enforce the state law against public cannabis consumption.
But Zaveduk said he doesn’t expect that to be an issue, because Bloc’s typical purchaser is not going to sit in the parking lot and partake.
“That’s not why they’re purchasing it,” Zaveduk said.
Justice Cannabis plans to hire up to 25 people for Bloc, and officials have said local people will get the priority.
Emerald Coast is owned by Justin Frankel of Katohan, N.Y., Alan Dordek of Wilmette, Tyrone Harris of Bellwood, Illinois, and Mathew Joseph Hagglund of Normal, Ilinois.
Emerald Coast’s operator, Justice Cannabis, has a cannabis cultivation facility in Edgewood, IL and operates dispensaries in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Missouri, Utah and Michigan.
Bloc Dispensary will be open at 7216 Circle Ave. from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends. The opening date is not yet clear.
