SOUTH SHORE — A cannabis company that’s part of a state program to give disenfranchised Illinoisans more access to the industry aims to open a flagship dispensary in South Shore, company officials said.
The 1937 Group plans to open a dispensary at 7105 S. Yates Blvd., about a block from the South Shore Cultural Center. The minority-owned company produces cannabis flower, vapes and pre-rolled blunts and joints which are now sold in 15 Chicago dispensaries.
The company is named after the year in which the U.S. government essentially outlawed marijuana via the Marijuana Tax Act. It operates 1937 Cultivation, a manufacturing facility in west suburban Broadview formerly known as Helios Labs.
The South Shore dispensary is “going to be considered our baby — one of our flagship stores,” CEO Ambrose Jackson said. “We are one of the only cannabis companies, if not the only, that is repping the South Side.”
It’s not clear when the dispensary could open. The owners are waiting for a letter of support from Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th) and approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals — the latter of which can be a lengthy process, Jackson said. The dispensary could open by the end of the year “if everything goes well” on the permitting side, Jackson said.
Yancy and his staff did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Company leaders most recently pitched their plans to South Shore residents at two community meetings Feb. 27 and March 9.
Neighbors made clear at the meetings they will not support a business which is “here to make money and extract that money from the community,” Jackson said. “They want to be sure that the money comes back to the community.”
Jackson hopes The 1937 Group’s South Side-based leadership and its nonprofit, with a mission to address violence-related trauma, reflect the business’ commitment to the neighborhood, he said.
Chief Integration Officer Eric Ice-Gipson was born and raised in South Shore, and the company’s headquarters are already based there, making the neighborhood a good fit, Jackson said.
Should it open, it would be among few dispensaries south of Roosevelt Road.
Mission Dispensaries, about 2 miles away at 8554 S. Commercial Ave. in neighboring South Chicago, is the nearest dispensary to the proposed South Shore site. Mission carries The 1937 Group’s products. Spark’d in the South Loop is the next-closest dispensary, about eight miles away.
Despite the “dispensary deserts” elsewhere on the South and Southwest sides, neighbors in those communities weren’t as receptive to dispensary plans, Jackson said.
“The community and elders [in other South Side neighborhoods] have seen what cannabis has done negatively, over generations, to their communities,” Jackson said. “There’s a certain amount of generational trauma associated with the cannabis plant that only strengthens the stigma against it” despite its medicinal uses, he said.
Members of The 1937 Group hold social equity licenses, and the company launched an incubator to help entrepreneurs apply for cannabis licenses under Illinois’ social equity program, Jackson said.
The social equity program was created to help people impacted by cannabis-related arrests and imprisonment participate in the legal cannabis industry. Jackson is a license holder who was arrested as a teenager on charges of cannabis possession with intent to sell.
The company’s incubator helped about 100 people apply through the equity program, of which two received licenses, Jackson said.
Jackson has been outspoken about his frustrations with the program’s effectiveness. He told Block Club the current setup encourages licensees to sell out to “big money” companies once their business is approved.
“It’s different in terms of the [program’s] implementation and how things have played out, versus the intent,” he said.
The 1937 Group is “very proud to represent the intent of the law and true social equity — being in a position to create generational wealth for ourselves [and to] use our platform to open the door for others behind us, and create access and inclusion in this industry.”
The company’s leadership team includes former Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Sonia Antolec, the group’s legal counsel; Ice-Gipson, the South Shore native and Navy combat veteran; and Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Valdes, a classmate of Jackson’s at the University of Illinois Chicago.
The company is “in growth mode” in 2024, with an existing dispensary in downstate Tilton, Jackson said.
The group plans to partner with other social equity license holders to open seven dispensaries throughout the Chicago area this year, starting with a location in suburban Forest Park set to open in April, he said.
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