The Black-owned Nile cannabis dispensary recently opened on Bergenline Avenue in West New York in Hudson County.
Heady NJ visited them early in the day as their customer appreciation party was getting started.
Nile Co-founder Leland O’Connor noted West New York and North Hudson is a Hispanic community stronghold.
“Pretty much everyone here is bilingual,” he noted.
There has been great demand in the area for a legal dispensary for a while.
“People have wanted it for a long time, and we’re just happy to bring it to the customers in this area,” O’Connor said.
He noted HudHaus was one of the few close by in North Bergen.
O’Connor explained many of their customers so far want to try new cannabis strains and infused creams for pain, which they’re eager to supply.
Unique Flower Available
A cultivation company from Oregon, Grown Rogue, invested in Nile NJ LLC. They specialize in craft cannabis. So Grow Rogue was featured prominently in the dispensary with several strains that could be seen and smelled at the flower bud bar where you could see and smell samples.
O’Connor noted Grown Rogue is growing legally in Paulsboro in South Jersey.
The Grown Rogue Brand Ambassadors were at Nile tabling and showing off their pre-rolls and flower and talking to customers. They explained they are planning on introducing even more new products soon.
Nile dispensary also featured cannabis flower from Full Tilt Labs, Cookies, and others in a separate bud bar too.
Camino gummies were featured prominently in the store as well.
Assistant General Manager Dominick Brennan noted they wanted to do more with their bud bar.
“We’re trying to make it more interactive,” he explained. “They (the State) made us submit a whole SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) …. to do it,”
Brennan said they want to have the best flower and concentrates.
Since Nile opened quietly as a soft opening, he noted it has been interesting learning customer patterns.
“Creating pre-rolls bundles has definitely been successful,” Brennan explained.
“They come once a day for the new pre-rolls,” he added.
Brennan noted customers like deals.
Black Owned Dispensary
O’Connor explained they named the place after the Nile River in Africa.
“It’s one of the birthplaces of life,” he noted. “It’s one of the largest rivers in the world that flows reverse course, and we’re trying to reverse a lot of the ills of the War on Drugs.”
“We’re minority-owned, me and my partner are African American, so it plays on Africa at large,” O’Connor added.
He noted the Nile River flows through other countries in Africa too.
O’Connor noted that the dispensary is a spacious place that used to be a well-known baby clothing and furniture store.
Nile Dispensary Ownership Background
O’Connor explained he got into cannabis in 2017 on the CBD side with GennCanna. His dad was in law enforcement initially and became a security consultant for a company in Kentucky interested in hemp. So, he served as their consultant on financial matters for a little while.
“I quickly fell in love with it,” O’Connor said.
He noted he has been a longtime fan of the herb which helped.
“When I got to college and after that I started smoking,” O’Connor explained.
He felt it was impactful helping them grow and promote the medical benefits of CBD.
O’Connor currently lives in Long Branch in Monmouth County. He explained he was living in New York then. West Philadelphia is where he was born and raised.
“I didn’t grow up in the best of neighborhoods and to something see where a lot of ppl were either in prison for something’s that mainstream today. I actually wanted to take part in that,” O’Connor added.
So, he thought it was a good idea to follow up with contacts to get into cannabis by opening a dispensary when the tide started changing.
West New York approved Nile Dispensary to open in February 2022, and the NJ Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJCRC) approved it in December 2022.
However, like others, O’Connor realized opening a dispensary was not easy. Finding a good construction company to work with was especially hard, along with dealing with town regulations.
O’Connor also explained that despite his background on Wall Street, he had trouble raising money like many other small businesspeople.
He noted corporate Multi-State Operators (MSO) operators often come from hedge fund/finance backgrounds but still struggle.
“I think a lot of people come into this industry thinking that, oh, it’s just weed and don’t realize the ramifications,” O’Connor noted.
But now they are open, the sky is the limit.
“Looking to do a couple other things in New Jersey and Connecticut,” O’Connor said about the future.
(Full disclosure this is an advertorial ad purchased from Heady NJ.)
