New York City offers loans to cannabis social equity retailers

New York City has launched a low-interest loan program designed to provide affordable capital to licensed cannabis social equity retailers.

A total of $2 million is available in the first phase of the Cannabis NYC Loan Fund, which might have one or more application cycles, depending on how many businesses apply.

Three-year loans of up to $100,000 at 9.5% interest are available for each eligible Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) license holder in the city, according to Green Market Report.

Eligible businesses may apply for the loans through the city’s Department of Small Business Services as well as the Economic Development Corp.

New York City-based cannabis equity firm Tuatara Capital will administer the fund.

Licensees can use the money for whatever their businesses need, said Dasheeda Dawson, director of  Cannabis NYC and the new loan program.

“Financing and real estate tend to be challenges for any licensee in the space, let alone someone that has had a previous incarceration,” Dawson told Green Market Report.

Dawson said many cannabis social equity business owners don’t realize the challenges and expense involved in opening a store when they decide to enter the industry.

“Sometimes people have gotten all the way to the point where they can open, but they don’t have their security cameras,” Dawson said.

“There are some things that are really just the smaller hindrances to getting people over the finish line. … For a lot of the licensees, they’ve been nickeling and diming, bootstrapping this process anyway.

An additional $6 million in capital will be available next year for cannabis operators beyond the retail space.