Despite a number of delays, Evergreen Market of Renton, Wash., remains committed to opening a retail cannabis outlet in Turlock and now is in the homestretch of what’s been a years-long process.
Evergreen Market, which has five locations in Washington, has a development-agreement hearing slated for Thursday during a Planning Commission meeting at Turlock City Hall. Evergreen already has secured a location in Turlock — 101 E. Glenwood Ave., off of Lander Avenue, less than a quarter mile from Highway 99.
“Our biggest challenge is we’ve got the property and we’re paying rent on it,” said CEO Shannon Vetto. “We kind of want to get in it.”
Currently, there are two cannabis dispensaries operating in Turlock: Firehouse Cannabis Dispensary, 1601 W. Main St., and Perfect Union, 2500 N. Golden State Blvd.
The Turlock Journal reported in July that a development-agreement hearing for Evergreen Market slated for Aug. 4 was postponed by the city due to a lengthy background-check process.
An extensive background check was required for Vetto and all three Evergreen Market owners to get through the first phase of planning.
“By itself, it’s quite an exercise,” said Vetto. “All four of us had to fly down to Turlock, get digital fingerprints taken, then go to the city to make sure they’d work so we wouldn’t miss a deadline before we went back to Washington.”
Because the city hired a new police chief, city manager and city attorney since Evergreen Market was awarded the license in July 2019, delays weren’t unexpected.
“Their initial location in 2019 was on Golden State, and part of the holdup was that they had to find a new location,” said Capt. Steve Rodrigues of the Turlock Police Department. “And then COVID hit and things were kind of dormant. We restarted the vetting process to make sure nothing new had come up during the dormant period, but it wasn’t anything negative against the business itself.”
Vetto said Evergreen Market remains fully committed to Turlock.
“It’s 100 percent a go,” said Vetto. “We’re all in and it seems like the city’s all in, from our perspective. It’s just the usual highs and lows associated with the cannabis retail business.”