ABOVE: From Seven Point of Illinois’ recent stop at Soar Space Business Center in Danville: Seven Point’s Vanessa Dotson, Shane Miller (Pharm D), S.L. Owens (Chief Cannabis Officer of CannaTrep), and Seven Point’s Amy Lee (LCSW).
It now looks like that sometime soon the approved Seven Point of Illinois Cannabis Dispensary for the West side of Lynch Road at 388 Eastgate Drive will be breaking ground; perhaps sometime in June.
It’s been a long road for Seven Point CEO Brad Zerman. First, they won a lottery for a license in Danville in August of 2021; but things slowed down when numerous parties that didn’t win the license lotteries filed lawsuits against the state.
Once that cleared the hurdle, Zerman then made some changes to the planned design of the Danville site; including changing the whole footprint of the site so that it faces not Lynch Road, but where the customers would be approaching from.
TREP School CEO Tricia Teague and Seven Point CEO Brad Zerman at CannaTrep’s recent Cannabis Friendtor Day.
This week, Zerman is on the road working on a possible Michigan location. But late last week he was in Danville for a session at the Soar Space Business Center, with the intention of making more local connections, as well as connections with possible state funding sources. Zerman says, mission accomplished.
Attorney S.L. Owens, Chief Cannabis Officer at CannaTrep, says “The Trep School organized this free community event through a partnership with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to help connect cannabis industry professionals to each other and to educate the community about career and licensing resources.”
Meanwhile, Zerman says dealings with the City of Danville are also progressing.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: My architects drove to Danville a couple weeks ago, dropped off the drawings to the building department in person; we paid the fees. They’re reviewing the plans. We’re anticipating pulling the permits this month, and mobilizing the crew next month.
Seven Point co-founder and Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) Amy Lee says the discussions in Danville late last week included the important topic of where to get workers trained. And not surprisingly, Danville Area Community College was talked about.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: We have a restorative justice incubator program coming where we are going to be partnering with organizations such as the Soar Program. We’re going to reach out to Danville Community College. We’re going to recruit and train people to work in the Cannabis industry.
Brad Zerman says education of the public continues to be important.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: People use cannabis for a variety of reasons; you know physically, mentally. And just because they don’t have a medical card doesn’t mean they’re not using it medically.
Zerman says he cannot predict an opening date at this point, but he’d certainly like to be opening Seven Point’s doors in Danville by next February.
Seven Point will add to the already existing Sunnyside Cannabis Dispensary on the east side of Lynch Road, along with the planned Parkway Dispensaries in Tilton that recently broke ground along Georgetown Road.
