Six cannabis business applicants will be moving on to the next phase of business development in National City: Sessions by the Bay, Stiizy NC, Off the Charts, Mr. Nice Guy, Element 7 and NC Investment Group.
All six retail locations will be located west of I-5, near the marina, in the area zoned for tourist and commercial use.
In addition to operating as a retail location, Sessions By the Bay was also chosen to operate a consumption lounge, a first for San Diego county.
Several of the applicants are already affiliated with retail operations in other locations. Stiizy is owned by Shryne Group, a Los Angeles-based entity ostensibly seeking to enter the National City market. Multiple cannabis dispensaries operate under the Off the Charts label throughout Southern California including a North county store in Vista. Similarly, Mr. Nice Guy is associated with other stores throughout the region as is Element 7, which recently opened a retail location in neighboring Chula Vista.
National City Economic Development Manager Pedro Garcia said the biggest priority in establishing the new businesses is considering any negative impact on the community.
“Our priority is any potential impact on the community. In this case, we’re going to be looking closely at safety, security and the community benefit aspect,” Garcia said.
Cannabis sales are “a new endeavor for the city” but development is similar to a franchisee opening up a shop in National City, he said.
“Say someone wants to open a McDonalds. The corporation is out of state but the person with the franchise still has local ownership,” Garcia said— to qualify as a National City cannabis business, applicants had to verify at least 51% local ownership.
Applicants also had to prove they had been National City residents for at least three years prior to Nov. 1, 2021.
“We had a third party do the vetting but given what I work on in my position, I did see many of these applications for other reasons. There were W-2 tax forms, rent-lease agreements, property taxes and drivers licenses, bank statements— you name it they gave me everything to prove their residency,” Garcia said.
Although he said some people might say local residents were “just bought off to be on the application,” he maintains that being a 51% majority stakeholder means the business is owned by local residents and they will answer to the community.
Phase three, the next step toward opening up shop will include establishing a development agreement with the city. Once each applicant and city staff have agreed upon a development agreement, those applicants and their individual agreements will be presented to city council for final approval.
