Abandoned Tower District bank in Fresno has a new tenant. It’s a cannabis dispensary

The former Bank of America branch in Fresno’s Tower District has a new tenant.

If all goes as planned, the building, which has been vacant since 2017, could become one of the city’s first cannabis dispensaries.

“My goal is to take a blighted building, two blocks from where I grew up, and renovate it, make it something cool for the community,” say Kacey Auston, whose business has applied for three of the city’s 14 retail cannabis licenses.

Along with the Tower District location, Auston has a proposed location in Pinedale (where Toledo’s restaurant once was) and another at Shaw and Blackstone avenues.

The Tower District and Pinedale locations will operate under the brand Lemonnade.

The Blackstone and Shaw location will be branded as Cookies.

All will be part of a chain of dispensaries started by Bay Area rapper-turned-weed-entrepreneur Berner and a scientist who now works for the AIDS Foundation in San Francisco. Currently. The nearest Cookies location to Fresno is in Modesto.

“Gone are the days of the ‘60s and ‘70s head shops,” Auston says.

Lemonnade will offer a full slate of cannabis products in 8,000 square feet of retail space that Auton likens to an Apple store: bright and open, with clean lines. There will be ID checks for entry beyond the foyer, where clothing and other branded merchandise will be available, and 24-hour security around the building.

That in itself will go along way in transforming the block, Auston says.

“Dispensaries go in. Security increases. Crime goes down.”

For its employees, the store is set to provide livable wages — starting at $20 an hour — with full benefits and a 401k plan. That’s important in a city that ranks near the top for people, especially women, living in poverty, Austin says.

She expects to have 35 employees at each of the three stores; about 110 total including general managers.

Employees will also get 40 hours of paid time off to volunteer. That can be anything from a local community event — the Tower District is chalk full of choices — to a child’s school event.

“That means the single mother who maybe couldn’t go on a field trip, now has a paid day off to go on that field trip.”

The timeline for weed shop in Fresno

It’s still early in the process, but Auston’s company has already invested in architecture and engineering design for the building and began outreach to the community, including securing a letter of support from the Tower District Marketing Committee.

The city is currently in phase one of reviewing its cannabis applications. A second review phase, which includes an interview with prospective business owners, is expected in late February, Auston says. The licenses — up to two in each of the city’s seven council districts — will be awarded in May.

Once the license is awarded, Lemonnade can begin the build-out of store and start the process to get its conditional use permits. The shop could be open by early 2022, Auston says.

“By next year, there will be a whole new energy on this block,” she says.

This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 5:00 AM.