Berkley council awards marijuana license to third business

BERKLEY — The third marijuana business license in Berkley has been approved by its City Council.

At its July 18 meeting, the council unanimously approved the marijuana license for the applicant Operation Grow, which will be operating a business at 2222 W. 11 Mile Road under the name “butter.”

Representatives from butter, Dan Amori and Christopher Klamkin, came before the council to share their excitement about operating their business in Berkley.

“It’s been a long process and we’re here, we’re ready to get going and submit for permits as soon as possible,” said Amori, butter’s chief operating officer and head of compliance.

“Thank you for your continued support,” Klamkin, butter’s CEO, said. “We’re here to get behind what we committed to do and start a great, thriving business that … succeeds, doesn’t fail. We’re here to follow through on that.”

When asked when they expect to start construction and open butter, Amori said they will be submitting for permits as soon as they have their construction documents done, which he expected in two weeks.

“After that review process, we already have a general contractor signed up, we’re ready to start building, and most likely April 1 (we’ll) be ready to start doing business,” he said.

Previously, the council approved licenses for Quality Roots and Attitude Wellness, which will operate as Lume. The only business from the five highest-scoring applicants to receive a perfect score in its application was butter.

There still are two of the top-five-scoring applicants that are going through the city’s process: Seven Point Dispensing of Michigan LLC and Yellow Tail Ventures LLC at 11 Mile Road.

City Manager Matt Baumgarten told the Woodward Talk that the businesses are working on their site plans, which they’ll have to take to the Planning Commission before they can go before the council for a potential license.

“Both of them are slated to appear in front of the Planning Commission over the next two months,” he said.

The Planning Commission meeting on July 26, which occurred after the Talk went to press, was scheduled to have a sketch plan review from Yellow Tail, which is proposing a business named “Moses Roses” at 3120 W. 11 Mile Road.

Baumgarten also expressed his pleasure that the city is nearing the end of its marijuana licensing process, which had gone through numerous delays because of litigation.

“Being held up by litigation is never, ever pleasant, but our applicants were patient and worked with us through this process and understood the starts and stops that happened,” he said. “But we’re close to the end here, and we look forward to seeing what the next two applicants have when they meet with (the) Planning Commission.”