Terrace Dispensary, Moline's first cannabis dispensary, is open for business at 2727 Avenue of the Cities, Suite 7. CREDIT KENDA BURROWS
Budtenders at Terrace Dispensary have been busy since Friday, July 21, assisting customers and preparing for a grand opening at the end of this week that the new Moline dispensary operators anticipate will be a “pretty big event.” For Terrace in Moline – the first of two marijuana dispensary licenses and locations that have been […]
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Budtenders at Terrace Dispensary have been busy since Friday, July 21, assisting customers and preparing for a grand opening at the end of this week that the new Moline dispensary operators anticipate will be a “pretty big event.”For Terrace in Moline – the first of two marijuana dispensary licenses and locations that have been approved by the Moline City Council – there’s a lot to celebrate. It begins with the city’s first-ever legal pot dispensary quietly opening its doors at 2727 Avenue of the Cities for a weeklong soft opening before a public ribbon-cutting, grand opening event on Friday, July 28.For the Moline location’s parent company, Terrace Cannabis, which is owned by an all-Illinois group of investors, the new shop also is another step in Terrace’s efforts to achieve some rather ambitious goals. “We are a cannabis collective and our motto is Bringing Cannabis to New Heights,” said Shannon Duncan, Terrace’s director of retail operations, and a United Township High School graduate who lives in the Quad Cities.“We are acquiring as many dispensary licenses across the state of Illinois that we can to grow our brand and hopefully make it nationwide at some point,” she told a QCBJ reporter Friday, July 21, as customers slowly trickled into the remodeled former Aldi grocery store at the busy Avenue of the City intersection. The understated launch of Terrace’s newest location – which currently boasts only a small, temporary sign above its tinted front door – was on purpose, Ms. Duncan added. “We’re slowly letting people trickle in, getting our staff familiar with software and everything,” she said. On the first day of operation, for example, it included dealing with new inventory being delivered and processed under the watchful eye of a smiling security guard.Shannon Duncan, director of retail operations for Terrace Cannabis, celebrates the opening of the company's Moline location. CREDIT KENDA BURROWSThe new Terrace Dispensary also represents a milestone for the City of Moline, which had previously OK’d a different company’s plans on the former Aldi store site. The first cannabis dispensary license the city approved was being developed on property owned by Dan Dolan for Deeprootz LLC. That group pulled out last spring, however, and Moline sought another licensee. Terrace Cannabis took up the challenge to build what is now the city‘s first dispensary.“We got official approval in Moline to start construction in 2022, and that’s kind of around the time that we picked this location,” Ms. Duncan said of her company. The buildout began in late 2022 and the results will be celebrated this Friday including with a speech from Moline Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati. What will celebrants find at Terrace Dispensary in Moline?“We are creating an environment that our staff loves to come to. We want it to be a fun place for them to be and then, in turn, create a positive experience for customers as well,” Ms. Duncan said. “We are just here to serve the Quad Cities and get another dispensary to the area.”Early visitors to the Moline location this week are getting a somewhat smaller taste of the full menu of products that will be available at Terrace Dispensary.When fully opened, Ms. Duncan told the QCBJ, “We will have a variety of products from multiple cultivators throughout the state of Illinois. We are working on creating as much variety as we can at affordable prices.”But at first, she said, “we have a limited menu as we kind of build things out by doing our soft opening.”In addition to the complete menu available for purchase, Ms. Duncan also expects to have a full staff on hand Friday for what she said “should be a pretty big event.”That includes trained expert Terrace Dispensary budtenders who, Ms. Duncan said, will be available to help customers select cannabis products that feature flowers,cartridges, concentrates, edibles and “everything that the State of Illinois has to offer.”Terrace Dispensary products also are available in a secure environment that follows all the regulations Illinois leaders have put in place for dispensaries, she added. That includes, for example, the recent required and successful pre-opening walkthroughs by the Moline Police and Fire Departments. “They’ve been very helpful in the process,” Ms. Duncan said of city officials.“It’s new to them so we’ve been trying to be as transparent as possible. We’re letting them see the operations and just how everything works so that if we need them for anything, they can help us, and we want to provide them with as much information as possible,” she added.“Security is here all the time. So we’ve got multiple guards that are in the facility,” Ms. Duncan said before adding that there’s also ‘tons of surveillance.”She also stressed that Terrace Dispensary’s customers “can’t consume here at the dispensary so it’s not like a bar where people are overconsuming and then driving home, you’re purchasing here and then you’re going home to enjoy the product that you purchased.”Also under Illinois cannabis consumption laws, the Terrace Dispensary’s website reminds its customers that it is legal to consume cannabis in your home, backyard, back porch or on any private residence while out of the view of the public. But those who rent are subject to the rules established by their landlords related to cannabis possession and consumption. Additionally, Illinois does not allow for cannabis consumption on a school bus or on school grounds, in a correctional facility, or while operating, navigating or being in actual physical contact with a car, boat or aircraft.In all, Moline has approved four zoning areas suitable for cannabis dispensary development. And a second dispensary in the city is already taking shape. In March, the city council agreed to award a license to Bolden Investments I, LLC, to establish and operate a cannabis dispensary in the former West Music building at 4301 44th Ave.
Terrace Dispensary At-a-Glance
Location: 2727 Avenue of the Cities, Suite 7, former Aldi store, Moline.
Hours: Monday-Wednesday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Walk-ins welcome. Online ordering available here for quicker pick up.
Cash is the current payment accepted for purchases at Terrace Cannabis. An ATM is available at the dispensary for use.
Illinois limits: Those with a valid Illinois ID can purchase: up to 30 grams of flower, 5 grams concentrate and 500 mg THC for edibles and infused products in total per visit.
Out of state limits: Those with valid out-of-state IDs can purchase: up to 15 grams of flower, 2.5 grams concentrate and 250 mg THC for edibles and infused product per visit.
Consumption rules: While a motor vehicle is in operation, cannabis must be in a sealed, odor-proof, child-resistant container. It is a Class A misdemeanor to transport cannabis in any other type of container. Cannabis cannot be used in a motor vehicle.
