Mundelein pot store wants second recreational lounge
Mundelein’s lone cannabis dispensary will add a second lounge for recreational users.
The village board unanimously approved the proposal Monday by amending the ordinance that allows on-site consumption at Rise, 1325 Armour Blvd.
The new, 2,000-square-foot lounge will be on the north side of the dispensary, near its main entrance. It will complement an existing 1,200-square-foot lounge on the south side of the building.
The first lounge opened in 2021 and was the first in the Northwest suburbs.
Creating a second lounge will allow Rise to offer live comedy and musical performances or art classes without disturbing lounge customers who don’t want to partake in such activities, according to a memo from its parent company, Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries, to the village.
The company called the necessary architectural and design changes minor.
Appointments are required to use the lounge, and only newly purchased products can be used there. Alcohol is forbidden.
Those rules will continue to be enforced.
Lounge employees are tasked with preventing overconsumption of cannabis by patrons.
Under state law, municipalities can allow on-site pot consumption at licensed dispensaries — but few have. Another is at Okay Cannabis in Wheeling.
Rise opened as a store selling medical marijuana and supplies in 2015 under the name The Clinic. It rebranded when the sale and use of cannabis for recreational purposes became legal in 2020.