‘It’s something that’s here now’: Once banned, second pot shop takes root in Arlington Heights
A second marijuana dispensary quietly has opened in Arlington Heights, years after controversy and debate about whether to allow the first one to do business in town.
Longtime Mayor Tom Hayes was outright opposed to the vice, arguing it would diminish the village’s reputation as a family-oriented community.
But supporters say times have changed, and there was the new mayor, Jim Tinaglia, holding giant scissors at a recent ribbon cutting welcoming the new business and its green — leaves and tax dollars — to town.
Tru Essence Dispensary now is open at 792 E. Rand Road in the Southpoint Shopping Center. The 4,000-square-foot store — a former real estate office — is split up between its large front entrance and retail showroom, and back-of-shop fulfillment area and secure vault.
“They did a really nice job on the renovation inside. It looks like a nice retail establishment,” said Tinaglia, who as a village trustee in 2019 was one of only three board members to vote in favor of recreational marijuana sales.
But others on the elected panel soon decided revenue estimates from local taxes on pot sales — as much as $500,000 per dispensary, per year — were too good to pass up.
Months after the first vote, they overturned their ban and allowed a pilot program for recreational sales at Verilife, 1816 S. Arlington Heights Road, which was only permitted to sell medical marijuana until then.
In 2022, the board decided to make marijuana sales permanently legal in town; Hayes cast the lone “no” vote. Trustees also established geographic boundaries wherein shops could operate and placed a cap on the number of dispensaries in town at three.
Tru Essence is in the middle zone — a commercial area north of Oakton Street and south of Hintz Road — while Verilife is on the south end of town. One more shop would be permitted north of Hintz Road, but village officials say no other companies have expressed interest.
The new dispensary was among a round of applicants to earn state approvals at the onset of the pandemic, but got tied up in statewide litigation. After the Arlington Heights board’s decision to legalize pot sales in 2022, no additional approvals were needed from the municipality besides a building permit.
“We prospected Arlington Heights initially as we were deciding about whether it should be here or somewhere else,” said co-owner Dhaval Patel, whose background is in the financial services industry. “Arlington Heights and this part of Cook County is in the center of the universe when it comes to suburbia.”
With its location on a major commercial arterial and operating hours that begin at 6 a.m. daily, Patel believes his shop is the most accessible, readily available dispensary in the area.
The store offers nearly 1,000 products for sale, from flowers to vapes, and creams to edibles, and is staffed by 21 full- and part-time employees.
The majority of customers who have visited the shop so far are underage 35; about 15% are older than 55, said Patel, who believes legalization has led to normalization of marijuana in society.
“It’s something that’s here now, and people are not having a negative opinion as much as they did before just because it’s been around longer,” Patel said. “When we hosted our grand opening we had about 650 people who showed up. … We had no issue. We had no problem. A bunch of people in the neighborhood coming in to celebrate the newest pot shop coming to town.”