The cannabis dispensary owned by Wu-Tang Clan rapper Raekwon has gone to pot. An eviction notice was posted on the front door of HashStoria on Broad Street in Newark last month after failing to pay rent for two straight years.
HashStoria, according to court documents, fell behind on rent payments, late fees, and other contractual agreements to the tune of nearly $500,000.
Newark has seen a number of dispensaries open across the city. But what made this one garner so much attention in the media was a roster of celebrities who backed it financially. Raekwon, one of the cofounders of the dispensary chain, brought on board radio host Charlamagne and former U.S. congressman Bakari Sellers to invest in a venture that had proven successful in three other locations in Oregon, including Astoria, where the company was founded and derives its name.
“I was stunned,” said Robert Mejia, professor of cannabis studies at Stockton University, about the eviction news. “They also had a consumption lounge they were going to open up.”
When HashStoria opened at 799 Broad Street last November, the owners pulled out all the stops. The ribbon-cutting included several celebrity appearances, including rapper-turned-actor Fat Joe and fellow Wu-Tang Clan members like Method Man. But all the revelry concealed a bleak financial situation.
Court documents revealed that on the day of their grand opening, the company was already 19 months behind on rent, a hole that proved insurmountable, given the pricey overhead. The company’s contractual agreement with Brooklyn-based landlord BMHC, LLC put them on the hook for $23,333 per month.
It is unclear what went wrong, and Jersey Digs never received a reply from Hashstoria to a request for clarification. Another reason for the company failing could have been the delays caused by the city’s Planning Board, which denied the application in February 2023.
Nevertheless, HashStoria returned to the board later that year and won approvals. However, HashStoria had already stopped paying in April of the same year.
When the application appeared at the city’s Planning Board in 2023, co-chair Kalenah Witcher claimed she was “offended” by some of the architectural renderings. The renderings showed a rotating art exhibit with images that Witcher believed “glamorized” alcohol and drug use on one of the city’s most prominent thoroughfares.
Although the architect Rachael Grochowski argued the images were only conceptual, this presentation seemed to put a bad taste in the mouth of the board members who denied the application.
Delays, often caused by city approvals and inspections, are common in the industry and can put financial strains on newly started businesses.
“Nearly every operator I’ve talked to thought they were going to be operational much sooner than they ended up,” Meijia said. “That could set them back anywhere from one month to even a year.”
Another looming question left behind in HashStoria’s wake is whether Newark’s cannabis market is oversaturated. But there is still no consensus on how many dispensaries are too many, given the surrounding population, Mejia said.
For instance, Newark and Jersey City have similar populations, but their approaches to regulating the industry are vastly different. Newark only allows 15 licenses, while Jersey City allows 48. The cannabis market is still in a trial-and-error phase, and Mejia believes many dispensaries will fail as a result. As Newark’s cannabis landscape continues to evolve, the collapse of HashStoria stands as a reminder of the challenges facing even the most high-profile dispensaries in a new and uncertain market.
