Travel Agency becomes first New York rec shop with three locations

New York’s The Travel Agency, which was one of the first licensed adult-use cannabis shop to open for business in the state in early 2023, just added another first to its list of accolades: first recreational cannabis company to open three locations.

The nonprofit announced in a press release that it’s partnering with Chris Concannon, one of the 463 conditional adult-use retail dispensary licensees from 2022 and the founder of Terrapin Greens LLC, to open the new shop on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Wednesday.

The new 3,300-square-foot shop also marks the first legal marijuana dispensary to be located between Rockefeller Center and Grand Central Terminal, between 47th St. and 48th St., the company said.

Although Concannon will be the owner/operator, the store will be run under The Travel Agency’s brand name as part of a licensing deal, which means that the new shop won’t count toward The Travel Agency’s maximum of three directly owned stores statewide, a spokesman confirmed.

The Travel Agency’s other two shops are located at Union Square in Manhattan, which opened in February 2023, and in downtown Brooklyn, which opened earlier this year. The company can accept credit cards from customers, instead of just the usual cash or debit card options for payments, it said in the release.

The Travel Agency co-founder Paul Yau said that the deal with Concannon is further evidence that the company is delivering on its stated mission of supporting social equity in cannabis. The Brooklyn shop is also the result of a partnership with a CAURD licensee, Robert Degen, and his company, GMDSS LLC.

Each adult-use marijuana retail licensee is permitted a maximum of three stores in New York, but so far The Travel Agency has only one that’s owned and run under its nonprofit license. That means it can still open at two more stores itself, plus as many as it wants through branding deals similar to those it has with Concannon and Degen.

Most other licensed cannabis retailers still have just a single location, if that, since many have struggled to raise the needed capital to cover construction costs and the like in order to open for business.

As of May 3, there were just 117 legal operational adult-use cannabis stores in New York, with more opening each month, according to a press release from the state Office of Cannabis Management. The businesses are competing with at least 2,000 illegal sellers in New York City alone, according to estimates from authorities.

The Travel Agency has also grown to employ more than 200 staff already at its three stores, the company said.