Uncle Ike’s 15th Ave E (Image: CHS)
Filings with the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board indicate that Uncle Ike’s founder Ian Eisenberg is reorganizing the corporations and partnerships behind one of Seattle’s largest marijuana retailers as the chain is preparing to open a new Capitol Hill location later this year.
The applications for a transfer of existing licenses to a new Jet City Retail corporation were filed earlier this month.
Typically, assumption applications are part of the acquisition process for a new owner of an existing licensed business. But for the five applications filed May 7th for the various Uncle Ike’s locations around the city, the process appears to be corporate housekeeping and consolidating of the various limited liability corporations and companies brought together to form the various Ike’s entities.
Jet City Retail’s articles of incorporation filed in April initially listed only a Seattle cannabis industry lawyer but Eisenberg was added as a director last week after CHS’s inquiry about the company’s applications with the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board. The board says it will provide more information about the application in June through its public disclosure request process.
Neither the lawyer nor Eisenberg have responded to CHS’s questions about the filings.
If you would like to comment on the license applications, you can email [email protected]. Comments should include the trade name, license number, and address from the applications.
Last summer, CHS reported on the start of delayed construction to create Uncle Ike’s “Capitol Hill West” shop in an overhauled office building next do The Crescent. That project was further delayed this spring during the COVID-19 restrictions on construction.
Pot entrepreneur Eisenberg paid more than $2 million for the two-story, 1967-era property in the fall of 2017 as a land rush for E Olive Way properties played out after shifting laws and policies opened up the street to I-502 pot development. Ike’s E Olive Way competitor and CHS advertiser The Reef, meanwhile, opened in the former Amante Pizza location in August 2018.
Eisenberg opened the original Uncle Ike’s, the city’s second ever legal pot shop, at 23rd and Union in 2014, and added a second Central Seattle Uncle Ike’s on 15th Ave E in late 2016. Late last year as Ike’s geared up for the Capitol Hill expansion, Eisenberg also snapped up a location on Lake City Way. He also has plans for a new business near his Central District Ike’s where the Neighbor Lady bar lost its lease and Eisenberg has formed a new Uncle Ike’s Liquor, LLC for the address.
Pot has been a growth industry during the pandemic. In March, Eisenberg saw sales at his flagship Central District location jumpe more than 20% over February as part of an industrywide uptick in spending on pot and booze during the COVID-19 lockdown. Still, sales at the 23rd and Union shop have flagged from its earliest highs..
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Worth noting Neighbor Lady was leasing from Eisenberg
Yeah, Kicked them out. Super uncool and unprofessional. He really did the neighborhood a disservice. But, then again from what I’ve seen he doesn’t care much about the neighborhood. Ike has seen my last dollar.
Yep. Bad blood with the African American community (and playing the victim), bullying businesses to put up political signs in their windows, kicking out Neighbor Lady, putting up garish billboards for his pot shop, sitting on an eye sore abandoned gas station so that he can flip it when the neighborhood upzones, the list goes on.
I’ve boycotted Ike’s for years and am more than happy to do business at Ponder. I plan to boycott whatever soulless bar he opens up in place of the beloved Neighbor Lady. If only Med Mix was still on that corner…
His “bad blood with the African American community” is due to the anti-semitic mob harassment black activist were committing in order to extort from his successful business. Every single gripe they had was shown to be a false narrative. When asked what it is they wanted it was always $$$. they should have been prosecuted for racial harassment and extortion. They would have if they were white right-wingers. for those who don’t know what I’m talking about look at the Stranger articles about the anti-Semitism that happened on several occasions including africatown folks saying “go back to Nazi Germany and let them Nazis get at you again”. That’s not bad blood “with the African-American community”. That’s black folks acting like neo-nazis and getting away with it due to the city’s unwillingness to ever stand up to these bullies due to misplaced racial guilt. but the city caved in and gave them millions and handouts which is all they ever wanted. the black activist community should start worrying about the bad blood they create due to their blatant bigotry and extortion.
Hating on Eisenberg for being a successful businessman while providing good jobs and benefits vs…..
https://www.facebook.com/716395515/posts/10154981908850516/?d=n
“Bad blood with the African American community (and playing the victim”
He considers himself a victim because they were targeting him for mob harassment and extortion, making anti-semitic slurs an openly praising the Nazis genocide against Jews. The African American community with playing the victim by complaining that he dare to open a business in a historically Jewish neighborhood where he’s lived for three generations and refused to give them a cut of the profits. So which claim of victimization is more valid? The behavior of these activists has caused bad blood between them and 99% of Seattle. And then they think but it’s the color of their skin that is causing the animosity towards them.
Isenberg has made the Union and 23rd site safe and inviting. Before his arrival it was the site of 2 murders at the glass goods location. He created a spot for displaced Angel’s Shoe Repair at his 15th Avenue spot, which had been terminated from a lease on the site of Ruckus by their landlord, along with Post Options.
Isenberg has created attractive stores with daylight, nice staff and good product. Hating on his success is what much of the harping about him has been about, not to mention flagrant and at times subtle anti-Semitism. This is a man with Seattle and neighborhood roots who has every right to make a go of it.
Those of you who are indignant about him are free to buy your weed elsewhere, just as you are free to not buy at Amazon. Bezos’ billions did not come out of thin air. Rather they came because of all of us in the world who flock to his site because we like what he brings us via retail, AWS, Kindle, Echo, Movies and TV and more. And no, I am not an employee or shareholder and do wish their success was in another city.
Such a tired trope. Hate on those who have the gall to create something that others find valuable and like to buy from. Or who own property and choose to exercise their legal right to decide to sign or end a lease (ironic by the way that he may have saved Neighbor Lady a heck of a lot of grief if she was able to close shop pre or during Covid and not have a lease to worry about).
Cool story Ian. I will never shop at any Ike’s locations. Go to Ponder a few steps away instead.
I agree. I know Angel’s story very well and without that godsend of a space from Ian it would have been difficult for him as he lived nearby. I know some dick will say “Thanks Ian” to this post but I don’t care. When we heard Angel had landed a spot my husband (his former neighbor) and I were delighted.
“Such a tired trope. Hate on those who have the ball to create something that others find valuable and like to buy from” sounds alot like The Neighbor Lady until Ike moved in and kicked them out for no reason other than greed.
How many pot stores does Cap Hill need? I’d love to think more would drive prices down, but not when all but one are owned by the same guy….
But hate him or not, Ike’s has some of the cheapest pot in town. It’s not all good of course, but there’s always a market for low end of anything. Not my favorite store but they usually have something in stock when my other fav stores are out of stuff.
People always hate the guy who succeeds.
I watched a clip of the Jordan documentary and this sentiment reminds me of it somewhat.
People say Jordan wasn’t a nice guy and was a tyrant. Jordan said “Well, that’s you. Because you never won anything”.
Michael Jordan succeeded without his daddy’s money. The main thing Ian succeeded at was being hated by people in our neighborhood and oh boy did he succeed at that. Have fun picking up all the Orion signs loser.
But the people weren’t wrong about Jordan. He said it himself, he never tried to be a role model.
Best basketball player ever? Sure. Should the people automatically believe he is a nice guy and respects him for anything else? No.
He’ll not get another dollar of mine but I’ll share my opinion to every ear that listens. Including those I see heading into one of his businesses. Alternatives with better owners available… “Hey Stoner, Around the Corner!”
Lots of competitors. Even with lack of decent alternatives, I won’t patronize. Hand washing my vehicles these days lol.
Previously I’d nothing bad to say and kind of thought generally well of the guy. The way he played the Neighbor Lady was predatory and dickish not just to the owners and employees of the Lady… but to all the patrons who had come to love it. I used to walk from my NL stool into Ike’s on the regular.
efff that guy!
Ian is an a-hole. He kicked out Neighbor Lady because they didn’t back his lackey, Orion. He tried to screw over Ruckus by pulling that “Arcade” bit and constantly pops up on here pretending to be someone else saying Ruckus is ruining the block.
so it’s okay to make anti-semitic comments to a Jewish person because they made transgressions? I can think of many black folks involved in the harassment of his business who have far worse transgressions, far more skeletons in their closet. I assume you’re okay with the mob harassment and using racial slurs and calls to violence against them, right?
Literally, shut up, Ian
Nobody hates you because you’re Jewish. They hate you because you’re a sceaming piece of sh!t
Lol. Dude, that’s me.
At some point you’re going to have to reckon with the fact that I’m just a pissed off neighbor who’s mad Ruckus ruined the block and made the neighborhood unsafe for my kids.
Didn’t protest these openings at the time but now I wish I had.
Ike’s contributes to the problems, but at least he tries to address them by making improvements to his property.
It’s Ruckus’s total disregard for our neighborhood that pisses me off so much. They. Do. Not. Care. I. Hate. Them. And. I
Hate. Their. Indifference.
lol an article about mundane corporate restructuring brings out so much hate.
I guess Ian should apologize for being a successful businessman who doesn’t lick Kshama’s boots. Makes me all the more motivated to shop there. Can’t wait till this new location opens, it’s going to be super convenient for those of us on the West side of the Hill.
Mighty bold of you to bring up licking boots when you were a major backer of that bootlicker who ran for city council… although yeah, I would rather lick Kshama’s boot than spend a dollar at Ike’s, ever.
We protest a liquor store on same site of a pot dop store
Especially on a site where so many Black Youngans and Black Men who is in jail and prison for saling the same dope that “HE” is saling dope it. NO NO